Between Two Worlds
by poeticgrace
Summary: Between two World Championships, between the world of gymnastics and being a teenager, between childhood and adulthood, between getting what you want and having what you get, Payson and Lauren are just trying to live life on their own terms. S/P, L/A.
1. Chapter 1

"It's hard, isn't it?"

Payson Keeler looked up at Lauren Tanner with wide eyes, awestruck that anyone had caught her indulging in her favorite secret obsession of watching Sasha Belov work the Rock. He commanded the gym with an unmatched strength and prowess, instantaneously putting egotistical gymnists in their place in midst of the stressful and chaotic training in the weeks leading up to Nationals. As the reigning World Champion, the pressure was no more intense than it was for Payson. However, the other elites felt the need to win almost as strongly. This was not only the last cycle before the Olympics, it could also be the last of their careers.

And yet, even with all that going on, Payson was more focused on the strong muscles in her coach's back while she pretended to chalk her hands than the new mount she was supposed to be perfecting for the beam. Lauren knew that kind of distraction better than anyone. As the most boy-crazy gymnast at the Rock, she made it her business to notice these kinds of signs. It was interesting to see someone else wearing that kind of intense adoration she once held for Carter. Lauren had spent a year watching someone she couldn't have, and she didn't wish that kind of sadness on anyone, especially not someone as kind and deserving as Payson.

"Look, I know we've had our differences," Lauren murmured softly as she rewrapped her wrist in a vain attempt to appear busy before Sasha noticed. "But if you ever want to talk, I've been there. I think I can understand. I'm totally here to listen. All you have to do is ask."

"There isn't anything to talk about," Payson corrected her instantly, not even bothering with how automatic the words came out. It sounded like the kind of lies her friends had told – Emily after she found out she was pregnant, Lauren when her mother died and Kaylie in the midst of her eating disorder. Payson had told those lies too once upon a time, when she was recovering from her back injury. This time was different. "Look, Lo, I appreciate your offer, I really do, but there isn't anything going on. I was just watching Kaylie on the bars. She looks good up there, don't you think?"

Lauren glanced to where their friend and teammate was working to perfect a somewhat easy dismount. She was still working hard to get back to where she had been before anorexia and rehab. While no one would believe it, Lauren really wanted Kaylie to get better. If she was going to be the best, she wanted to beat the best, and that included former National Champion Kaylie Cruz. However, she would worry about that later. Right now, she was more concerned with Payson.

"Pay, c'mon, it's me you're talking to," Lauren pointed out uselessly. "I'm not going to push. I just wanted to remind you that we're still friends, even after everything has happened, and as you and Sasha like to point out constantly, we're teammates. I'm here if need me and even if you don't think you need me. I know what it's like to want something you can't have."

Payson quickly shrugged off Lauren as Sasha came over at them with fire raging in his blue eyes. Kaylie was standing back at the bars, her head hung and her hands on her hips as she tried to regain her composure. "I do not what is going on with you girls today, but you better get it under control," he snapped at Payson and then Lauren. "Kaylie's head isn't in this at all and you two have been talking for the past five minutes like this is some stupid sleepover." Lauren started to argue when their coach waved his hand dismissively. "Don't bother, Lauren. I want the two of you working together on the beam. Kaylie is going to work with Kelly on the bars. I am going to go help some of the juniors in the annex until I can stand to look at the lot of you again."

With that, the former Olympian turned on his heel and stalked out of the main gym toward the annex. "Yikes," Lauren muttered under her breath. "So, uh, beam?"

"He's right, you know," Payson told her a few minutes later as she watched Lauren do a series of leaps across the beam before dismounting perfectly. Her feet landed solidly on the mat as she pulled back in a salute to the imaginary judges. "Nice landing, Lo." The other blonde smiled appreciatively as Payson took her place at the edge of the springboard. "We have been distracted lately and it's not good for any of us. Kelly's still getting used to training here, Kaylie's head is off in La La Land when she's not in therapy and you've suddenly become very interested in my personal life."

Lauren shrugged. "It always happens when I don't have anything going on in my own life." It was true that the so-called Queen of the Beam had been temporarily sidetracked by Max Spencer, but then he had been sidetracked by Payson and the whole bisexuality thing. The truth was that she hadn't had strong feelings for a guy since Carter, at least none that anyone knew about. The ones she did have she had to hide because it had the power to send her entire world spinning off its very delicate axis. "Besides, we're not the only ones who are distracted, Pay."

Payson knew that she could lie to her very observant friend or she could come clean about it. Try as she had, she hadn't been able to get over Sasha. Working with him this intimately left her with residual feelings that she just couldn't shake. She tried to chalk it up to their gymnast/coach relationship, to her raging hormones, to her being a teenager, but they all just ended up ringing false. The truth was that there was more to it, and she couldn't help but think that Sasha felt the same way. Sometimes she wondered if it wasn't just her heart longing for more, but there had been something to that night at the ballet and to that kiss.

"I know, I know," she finally relented before closing her eyes and focusing on the routine. Maneuver by maneuver, she went through the movements flawlessly. Sasha had upped her DOD last week with a particularly trying dismount that only Lauren had ever managed at the Rock. When she flailed on the landing, Lauren was right by her side to steady her. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"You're over-rotating your hips," Lauren told her knowingly. "I had the same problem when I first started working on it. You're almost there. Just keep trying and you'll get it." The kindness was unexpected as Lauren helpfully critiqued her. She had always been competitive in a different way than Payson and that sometimes meant not being quite as helpful as she could be on the mat. Sasha had come in just then to watch the two girls working closely together. He couldn't help but smile affectionately as he watched his quartet of stars working harmoniously to help each other. When Payson stuck her landing perfectly the next time, Lauren clapped excitedly and hugged her friend. "Awesome, Pay! You might just give me some competition on the beam yet!"

The two giggled as they made their way over to the floor. After Payson had gone through her gracefully artistic routine, she slipped to the mat on the side to watch Lauren run through hers. When she faltered on a particularly difficult tumbling pass, Payson crossed the mat to help her readjust her hand placement. After another try, Lauren completed beautifully enough to elicit a round of applause from their much-calmer coach. "Very nice, Lauren!" he called as he crossed the gym. "Payson, you looked strong on the beam. Nice work, girls."

They beamed up at him appreciatively, and Sasha couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride as he gazed back at them. "Sasha, I kind of have an idea," Lauren proposed. "The four of us need to get better at working together. It's kind of hard to do with you constantly watching over our shoulder. This afternoon, could we maybe have a closed practice in the annex? I have some ideas on what is getting to Kaylie, and I think Payson could really help Kelly with her dance moves on the floor. You could have an assistant or a trainer in there if you don't trust us."

Sasha looked at Payson for direction. He was always doing that, and Lauren had definitely noticed. Payson nodded her head slightly, her big blue eyes dancing happily. It had been awhile since he had seen his star gymnast (a fact he would deny if ever asked) that joyful. Focused, determined, excited – she had those down pat. However, he hadn't seen that smile in far too long. "Alright, this afternoon, you four can have two hours in the annex alone. Then, I will view your routines and decide if I will allow this to continue in the future. I am putting you in charge of keeping the other girls on task, Lauren. Do you understand me?"

Lauren couldn't help but inwardly grin at Sasha's assignment of responsibility. He always looked to Payson and even Kaylie to be a strong leader but never her. However, after she had come clean about the tape and he had forgiven her, they had made a concerted effort to start over. Lauren was actually not that bad when she wasn't scared of losing everything. "Got it, Sasha," she said obediently before correcting herself. "Yes, Sasha."

After running through their vaults and bars once each, Payson and Lauren spilled out into the warm afternoon sun for lunch break. They were free to leave the gym for an hour to grab something but most of the girls often brought their food to veg out in the lounge for a few precious minutes. However, with the warmer-than-usual weather for the season, more gymnasts than usual were taking advantage of the various picnic tables and benches sprinkled around outside. Dashing toward their usual bench beneath the pair of oak trees across from Sasha's trailer, Lauren and Payson collapsed in a laughing heap as they waited for Kaylie and Kelly to catch up.

Payson suddenly missed Emily. It was still weird without her sometimes, but six months since their friend had left Boulder felt much longer. Sometimes she couldn't even remember what it was like to train with her and without Kelly. Though she didn't still fully trust the tiny brunette, she was a good compliment to the strong team the Rock had built. She was also extremely loyal to her teammates, a characteristic she shared with all the other Rock girls.

"How did you convince Belov to let us have a closed practice?" Kaylie asked as she tore a piece of her turkey sandwich and popped it in her mouth. Payson watched her friend happily chew her lunch and thanked God not for the first time that she was actually eating.

"Actually, that was all Lauren," Payson told her. "Sasha saw that we were able to work out a few things we had both been struggling on and she explained to him that we could all probably benefit from working together without him staring down at us. I simply agreed with her. It was a good idea. Team bonding is always a good thing, right?"

Kelly looked at her a little skeptically before shrugging. "Sure, whatever," she said dismissively. "I'm glad we actually have some time together. I need to talk to you all about something. Especially Lo and Kay." Payson could see that she was nervous so she patted her friend's shoulder comfortingly to calm her down. "Look, uh, you all know I was kind of involved with Carter back in Denver. Well, Marty has been on him and he's interested in coming back to the Rock. We're still, you know, us...I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be a problem."

Kaylie and Lauren looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Carter Anderson?" Lauren managed between giggles. "No, seriously, Parker, it's fine. I can't speak for Kaylie, but I am completely over Carter. Have been for a long time."

"Kay?" Kelly asked carefully. She knew that Carter could be a delicate subject for her fellow brunette and didn't want to do anything to disrupt the friendly balance the team had going. "I'm serious. Just say the word and I will stay away from him."

"Lo's right, it's absolutely fine. I got over Carter a very long time ago. I for one don't have time for boys right now," she teased her fellow teammate. "Just tell him to watch himself. Sasha knows his habits and won't take too kindly to him messing around with one of his star gymnasts in the last year before the Olympics."

"Right, got it," Kelly muttered, her nerves showing on her face. "Thanks, you guys. You have no idea how nervous I was to talk to you about it. I just wanted to make sure that I was upfront with you before he came. I don't want to sneak around behind your backs."

The three Rock vets had endured enough of that to understand. They chattered for a few minutes as they snacked on fresh fruit. Kelly and Kaylie were the first to finish their lunch, tossing their trash in the nearby bin before heading back in the gym to get warmed up again. That left Lauren and Payson behind to finish up. "You really okay with Carter coming back?" Payson asked as she popped a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth.

"I really am," Lauren promised. "You really okay with working next to Sasha every day?" Payson narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Look, if I confide a secret in you, will you talk to me about Sasha? It's a juicy one, I promise, a big enough weapon to ensure my confidence."

"Fine," Payson relented comprehensively. "Lay it on me."

Lauren knew that what she was about to confide in the other blonde was huge. It was something she had promised to never do again but something in her heart couldn't help it. This wasn't Carter or Max or just some stupid crush. This was the real thing, more real than anything she had ever felt before, and like Payson, she just couldn't shake it.

"I think maybe I might have feelings for Austin Tucker," she said softly as she buried her face in her hands. "No one knows, Pay, I swear. Nothing has happened. We barely even talk but he helped me a few weeks ago and the way he smiles at me...I just feel it, you know?"

Payson smiled despite herself as she watched Sasha come out of his trailer. The sun shone on his sandy blonde hair. He certainly was a beautiful man. "Yeah, I know," she allowed. "But Kaylie..."

"Exactly. Nothing has happened between them in months, not since right after Worlds. I don't think there is anything left, but that doesn't mean that she would be okay with it," Lauren replied knowingly. "Payson, you can't tell anyone. I am not going to do anything about it, I swear. I just...it's been awhile since I felt anything for anyone. I didn't even really want Max. I just didn't want to be alone."

Slinging her arm around her friend's shoulder, Payson squeezed Lauren near to her. "First of all, and I am serious about this, Lo, you don't need a guy to not be alone. You have me, you got it? You have Kaylie and even Kelly. We're here for you. I know that wasn't always true but it is now." Lauren nodded and smiled at her teammate. "Secondly, as much as I hate to admit it, I get what you are going through. You know as well as I do, I'm there myself. It sucks but we have to be strong. We don't have much of a choice. And I want you to know how proud of I am. The old Lauren would have acted first, apologized later."

"I don't want to hurt you or Kaylie again," she vowed. "I've done enough." Her list of transgressions was a mile long, and yet, her friends had forgiven her sins. "Do you want to tell me anything else?"

"Lo," Payson exhaled. "It sucks. I know that I shouldn't feel the way that I do. Absolutely nothing will ever come of it, but something about me just can't help it. I know there is something there with him." She stopped talking long enough to watch him stride effortlessly across the parking lot. "He makes me feel like I'm sparkling inside. God, that sounds stupid."

"No, I get it, I do," Lauren said instantly as she watched the object of her own affection swing one leg over Lolita after pulling into his reserved spot. "It's like one look is all you need to keep you alive. That secret smile, the one you are sure he reserves just for you, is your lifeline. And when he touches you, well, there's nothing better than that."

Payson couldn't believe that Lauren Tanner could understand anything she was feeling, especially when it came to boys. However, they were both in love with men – beautifully complicated _men_ – that the couldn't have. "We should probably get back," she said as she glanced up at Sasha again. He was waiting outside the front doors, his arms crossed as he glared at them. She smiled apologetically at him and was happy to see his blue eyes soften under her steady gaze. "Thanks for this, Lauren. I'm glad that I have someone I can talk to about this, someone I can really trust?"

Lauren almost asked Payson if she really meant it but thought twice about it. Payson rarely said anything she didn't mean and if she said they were friends again, she meant it. Instead, she helped her friend throw away the trash before throwing her arm around Payson's shoulder and walking back to the gym. They passed through the open door beneath Sasha's arm. "Good to have you back, Ms. Tanner and Ms. Keeler," he said softly, sharing a bemused smile between the two. "Now get back to work, you have some proving yourselves to do."


	2. Chapter 2

When Lauren was a little girl, she remembered someone saying that a dream is just a wish your heart makes, but growing up the way that she did, she had never really believed much in wishes and dreams. She had plenty of goals – to perfect her beam routine, to become a world champion, to make it to the Olympics and win gold. But she had always known that these were attainable things if she just worked hard enough, trained hard enough, pushed herself hard enough. Anything else had come easily enough, whether it took her father's money or her scheming.

The first time she could really remember believing in a dream was when she decided to accept Summer into her life. It was the first time she ever felt like she had a mom, though she would later come to understand why she hadn't had her own. Summer had brought her family back to life, made her father happier than Lauren had ever seen her and made Lauren actually feel safe. Lauren had believed that she would be able to give up a lot of her old habits with the seemingly positive influence in her life. But when she got hurt, Lauren acted out like always did. It was a dangerous pattern she seemed desperate to repeat.

Now, watching Austin twist effortlessly on his dismount from the rings, she knows that she has found her second dream. She can see the entire story pass right there in front of her eyes – lingering looks and first kisses, veils and lace, little towheads with mischievous eyes, lazy afternoons on front porches. Lauren knows that she could approach this like a goal, but he was more than just something to have. There were so many implications to pursuing this that she just couldn't risk. For once, then, she knew she was going to have to let it come to her. Any other route just ensured it would end in disaster.

"What do you think, Tanner? Think that's good enough to show up Houston at the club meet next week?" Austin asked as he sauntered toward her. Lauren looked up and smiled politely, trying desperately to ignore the way her knees were knocking together. She felt silly for being so nervous around the champion. He was just another gymnast at the Rock, her teammate even. "I've been working on another dismount I was thinking about debuting then. Have time to give me your opinion?"

Lauren glanced nervously over her shoulder to where Sasha was still working with Kaylie on her bars routine. She expected Austin to follow her eye line to where the supposed love of his life was practicing but was happily surprised to find him still gazing at her when she looked back up at him. "Sure, I think I have some time," she declared with a slow smile. "Wow me with something amazing, Tucker. Make it worth my while."

"Oh, I'll make it worth your while," he insinuated before jogging back to the apparatus to show off his finely tuned skills. Lauren watched him expertly work his way through his standard rings routine before swinging off in a maneuver she knew only one other male gymnast in the world could land right now. The entire gym went silent as both feet landed firmly on the mat and Austin pulled up in a perfect salute. Lauren could only stand in amazement as Austin raised his eyebrow and looked over at her with a cocky, "Well?"

"That was amazing!" she squealed as she ran over to throw herself in his arms.

Austin caught her easily enough and spun her in an excited circle before setting herself back on her feet. It was the first time he had done that dismount in front of anyone other than Sasha, let alone an entire gym. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to impress Lauren Tanner with its public debut, but the way she had been looking at him made it feel like she needed it. As she wrapped her arms around herself and took a step back, he could see those famous walls going up all around her. She was a tough cookie to crack and the shameful way she lowered her eyes to her feet was hardly befitting the confident blonde he had come to know. It was only when Lauren tried to sneak a sidelong glance in the general direction of her former best friend that Austin realized what was going on.

"Thanks for the help, Lauren," Austin said carefully before patting her on the shoulder. He really was just trying to be friendly and had no idea that this could cause any tension between Lauren and Kaylie. Things were already running hot and cold with the latter that he couldn't afford to screw up his friendship with the former. As Sasha started to come over with a reproachful look on his stoic face, Austin simply nodded and told her that he would leave her to it.

"Lauren, if you are done flirting with Mr. Tucker, I would love to see that new tumbling pass you have been working on with Payson," Sasha ordered softly. He had seen enough to know that Austin could soon cause tension between his girls like Carter Anderson once had. He would do anything to protect them and cut that kind of heartache off at the pass. Both Kaylie and Lauren had been through enough in the past year, and it was his job to protect them the best he could. They needed to be able to focus and having a guy between them would surely prevent that. "Come on, Lauren. Let's hit the floor."

Lauren nodded dutifully as she shook off her earlier moment with Austin. It was time to focus and show Sasha what she had been working so hard to perfect. Her coach had been a lot more attentive lately, careful to divide his attention as equally as possible between the four elites. While the floor had always been Kaylie's thing and had become Payson's since her back injury, Lauren had really started to come into her own on the event over the past several weeks. She had the sizzle to handle the choreography and the power to handle the strength of the tumbling. Refining her skills had enabled Sasha to knock up her DOD a few notches. When she and Payson had proposed adding a new tumbling pass toward the end, he had finally trusted her enough to take a risk and try.

Sasha watched as Lauren stretched a few times before nodding toward one of the trainers to start her routine music. Lauren went through it perfectly, drawing the attention of her coach at all the right moments in a way that let him know it would score well. Near the end, right before her final tumbling pass, he watched her debut the famous double double flawlessly. A small smile crept on her face as she danced toward the middle and then leapt toward the opposite corner for her dismount.

"Very nice, Lauren!" Sasha clapped loudly as she ran off the mat excitedly toward her coach. The joy on her face showed that she knew how well she had done. "Keep your lines clean like that and we're looking at some serious competition on the floor. Good job."

Lauren smiled under his praise. "If you have a minute, I want to work my beam routine once through," she asked softly. Sasha nodded his permission as he followed her over to the apparatus. Lauren rarely came out and asked directly for attention, but she had been doing better about being direct since Rio. He had also made it his job to notice more. All of his girls had their signals, and it was his job to see them even if they didn't. "Alright, ready?"

In a flash, Lauren had mounted the beam in a new signature move that he was sure would be named after her once she debuted it at national competition. Her Arabian to a switch leap looked great as she landed solidly on the beam. After a few beats of choreography, she made her way to the back edge to do a roundoff into a set of handsprings. A few more movements led her to the middle of the beam and into a 2½ turn tuck on her left leg, her right one staying perfectly horizontal throughout the turn. Sasha was relieved when she finally dismounted with a roundoff into a clean double twist.

"That was awesome, Lo!" Kaylie called from nearby where she waiting for her turn to vault.

Lauren grinned happily as Payson and even Kelly called out their support. Sasha acknowledged her with a proud smile. Lauren had seen that look bestowed on Payson and Kaylie in the past, even Emily, but it was the first time it had been only for her. "You are a force to be reckoned with on the beam, Lauren. If we can get that dismount up a little bit, you are going to be a favorite for the gold in London."

"That's the plan, right?" she said with a shrug as she brushed the dust off from her hands. Lauren was at home on the beam and everyone knew that. It was exactly why she had been working Payson so hard. The two girls could push each other harder than anyone else besides their coach, lending their different strengths to the other's weaknesses.

Sasha once again congratulated her on her hard work before sending her off to work on the bars with one of the assistants. "Payson, vault!" he called out harshly, sending the other gymnasts waiting for the apparatus scurrying off in different directions. Payson only rolled her eyes as she stopped talking to Austin at the chalk bowl and joined her coach by the springboard. "How's your ankle?"

"Feels fine," she said, holding it out for him to inspect. Sasha watched her flex it twice before kneeling to feel the muscle himself. Her tendons were strong under his calloused fingers and all signs of her injury at Worlds were gone. His eyes met hers as he told her to flex again. Payson couldn't help but shiver the tiniest bit at his touch. She hated the way he could do that to her. "See, I'm fine."

"Alright," he allowed as he straightened upright again. Their eyes were locked in an intense gaze, his begging for acceptance and hers quietly defiant. It was a dangerous game that they were playing, Sasha knew, but there was something about this girl that made him unable to help it. "Let's see that vault."

Payson nodded obediently as she jogged over to the runway. She ran full force at the vault before launching herself over in a Yurchenko 2½ twist. She only had the slightest wobble as she landed with both feet on the mat. Sasha nodded thoughtfully as she walked back over. "You need to watch the landing but otherwise, it's exactly where you need to be," he told her. "Think you can up it?"

It didn't even take a half second before Payson was agreeing. They had been talking about kicking the twist up to a triple, a move that would give her the hardest vault in the world. "I can do it, Sasha."

He looked at her for a moment before nodding his ascent again. "Alright, we'll work tomorrow with the wires in the annex. I want to see it there first before I let you attempt it free reign. If it looks like you have it, you can work on it in the pit," he told her. "We'll see where you are next week."

It took everything Payson had not to become a giddy schoolgirl and squeal in delight. She had fought long and hard to come back from her back injury, and with the possibility of having the highest DOD in the world, she finally felt like she was fully back. Not only would she get the triple but she would make it perfect. Sasha believed in her and that was enough to make her not want to let him down. Sometimes she wondered if it was a bad idea to push herself like this for him, even if she told everyone it really was for her. The only way she could seem to make it okay was to remind herself that it didn't matter why she did, only that she did it in the first place.

"Alright, I want you to run through it three more times," Sasha ordered. "Then you and Lauren should get to work on the bars. I am going to run through Kelly's beam with her a few times before lunch. Good job out there, Pay."

Payson watched after him with a bemused smile. He had called her by her nickname, something he hadn't done in ages. It hinted at the same intimacy she had felt when he had held her ankle earlier, the little moment that had sent the delicious shiver up her spine. When Sasha looked back at her over his shoulder, she couldn't help but smile up at him through her lashes.

While Lauren stretched out near the bars with Kaylie and Kelly mounted the beam, Payson continued to work on her vault. She landed all three vaults perfectly, losing the wobble that had haunted her first one. Each time she stuck it to the mat, she could see Sasha watching out of the corner of his eye. While he should have been focused on Kelly Parker's slightly off-center aerial, he was too caught up in Payson's effortless landing. She was a beautiful gymnast and a gorgeous girl. There was no denying that and the longer she watched him watching her, she knew that he knew it too.

"Belov sure has eyes for you today," Lauren teased her softly after Payson abandoned the vault in favor of the bars. Her blue eyes flicked over to where their coach was supposed to be watching Kelly and found herself disappointed that his attention was focused fully on the tiny brunette. "Don't worry, Pay, he was watching you kick that vault's ass."

Payson blushed prettily at her friend's gentle ribbing. "Shut up, he was not," she commanded sternly as she focused on the bars. "Now get up there and work on that back giant." Lauren nodded obediently as she mounted the uneven bars to work. Her mount and dismount were solid, but there were some issues with what came between. The girls worked steadily for the next hour before Sasha dismissed them for lunch. Payson flipped off the bar with a Geinger and a wide smile. "Good workout, Lo."

"Thanks, Pay," Lauren huffed next to her as she dabbed at her tanned face with a crisp white towel. She handed a bottle of ice-cold water to Payson beside her and grinned as Sasha watched them from the landing outside his office. "He's watching you!"

"Shut up!" Payson whispered, her face breaking out into a smile despite herself. Her eyes flashed up to meet Sasha's. She subconsciously bit down on her bottom lip as he smiled at her and nodded toward his office. "Um, Lo, I'll met you in the lounge in a minute."

Lauren looked up at where Payson was still staring and shook her head. "Take all the time you need. I'll distract the other girls," she promised before slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading toward the door.

Payson retrieved her own bag and made her way up the stairs slowly. Most of the main gym had cleared out, and she could see her mother following Summer toward the hallway to supervise the gymnasts taking lunch in the aforementioned lounge. Sasha was sitting at his desk when she came in. He nodded for her to come in and then got up to shut the door behind her. Payson shifted uncomfortably on her feet as Sasha brushed past her on his way back to his chair.

"Have a seat, Payson," he told her softly. It came out as an invitation rather than a commandment. Payson let her bag fall uselessly to the ground as she sat in the only chair across from his desk. "I just wanted to call you up here to check on how things were going with you and the other girls. I've spoken with Kaylie and Kelly already, and I will talk to Lauren after lunch."

"Good, the afternoon practices have been helping. Lauren really seems to be helping Kaylie with her confidence, don't you think?" she asked rhetorically. "And it's helping us bond with Kelly a little bit better. She is the one who came up with that new footwork Lauren added to the floor."

"Very good," he nodded before jotting a few things down on a slip of paper in a manilla folder. "Anything else we need to discuss?"

Payson wasn't sure how but she suddenly knew exactly what he was getting at. "Sasha..." Her voice trailed off as the wave of confusion hit her. They had already talked about this at length and agreed that it was behind her. However, the thing was, they both knew that it could never be fully behind her as long as he was at her side. It was the same impossibility that kept him from feeling nothing when her eyes found his across a crowded gym or she smiled at him in just that way or their hands barely touched while working out together.

"Pay, I'm trying..." His own voice failed him as he looked down at his own hands shamefully. He was supposed to be above this adolescent nervousness radiating through his body. She was his gymnast and he was her coach. Nothing else, not even his feelings, mattered. He cleared his throat and shook his head clear of any other thoughts. "Payson, I just want to make sure you are fully focused on your training. Is there anything else I need to consider or alter as far as your time at the Rock?"

She hated how professional, distant and cold he sounded in that moment. "No, Sasha, it's fine," she answered numbly, not daring to let a single ounce of pain reflect in her voice. "Is there anything else?"

When Sasha shook his head, she didn't even bother to stick around for some awkwardly polite dismissal. She took the stairs two at a time, rushing through the lounge and through the front door. Kaylie, Kelly and Lauren watched in shock as their friend ran through the bustling room without stopping.

"I'll go after her," Kaylie volunteered, ready to push herself up off the floor.

"No, let me," Lauren insisted without waiting for the other two to disagree. She abandoned her lunch as she shrugged on her coat and grabbed Payson's before heading outside after her. It didn't take long to find her doubled over on the bench, shivering in the cold and cursing herself quietly with small tears sliding down her cheeks. Lauren sat down beside her and wrapped the warm parka around Payson's shoulders. "Oh, Pay."

The condolence came out affectionately as Lauren wrapped her arm around her friend and tucked their heads closely together. Tears streamed freely down Payson's face now as she looked up at her friend. She never cried, especially not over a boy. It was completely out of her character, but Lauren knew that falling in love could have that effect on a girl. It didn't matter how hard Payson tried or how much she tried to detach herself, this was her reality. Sasha mattered to her in a way she could have never predicted or even wanted, and Lauren feared that gave her coach the power to ruin everything without ever trying.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thank you for all for reading and reviewing. There is a particular movement in here that I used as an homage to an Olympic gymnast that I went to high school with that I wanted work in. I just hope I did it correctly! Anyhow, I appreciate all of the kind words of support. <strong>_


	3. Chapter 3

Three days later, Sasha stood at the window in his office overlooking the gym, watching as his elite gymnastics worked in pairs on the floor below. They were his career's greatest work, meaning more to him than even the quartet of gold medals stowed away in an old cigar box at home. He knew that even if he was remembered for his own performance, it would be those four gymnasts that would be his legacy. They would be the greatest professional accomplishment he could ever hope for.

There was the crowd-pleaser Kaylie Cruz, a real showman if he had ever seen one. She lit up the floor in a way he had never seen before when she took center stage. Kaylie put on a show when she competed, making her seem like the attainable girl next door with her pretty smile and shiny hair. She had come far since taking those much-needed months off to get better, and as he watched her dismount the bars and land firmly on her feet, he knew that she would go far.

Lauren Tanner was his spitfire. She was all sizzle and pop when she was on fire. She was also the most vulnerable of the four girls, though few would ever believe it. Lauren had had an incredibly difficult life, and even Sasha sometimes forgot that. It was easy to do when she got caught up in her schemes, but when she took the beam, everything else seemed to fade away. That was where she shone, where she seemed to actually be okay with just being Lauren. Slowly improving since Worlds, Lauren was his secret weapon. Like with those plans she loved, they would never see her coming.

The girl working on the beam, however, was someone that everyone saw coming. Kelly Parker was one of the biggest things in gymnastics today, a title she held for a reason. She had a nearly unmatched consistency and that made her a strong contender at nearly every meet she had competed in since she became an elite at thirteen years old. Kelly had worked hard to escape her mother's shadow and had only recently found her place at the Rock. She was the one that Sasha knew he could count on to put up the points when other girls would get caught up in their heads. As Kelly stopped to giggle with Kaylie about something as they chalked their hands, he knew her coming to the gym after Emily had left had been a blessing. She gave them a backbone they hadn't they needed at the time.

And then there was his Payson. Sasha shook his head and brushed off the possessive nature that seemed to course through him whenever he thought of the blonde. Payson was a natural-born leader and reliable in an entirely different way than Kelly. She was the one he could count on when the chips were down and they needed to put up big points. Very few things seemed to shake her confidence, and she had the skills to back it up. Payson exuded grace and wisdom beyond her years, both on and off the mat. There was something different about her than any other gymnast he had ever worked with, and Sasha still didn't know if that was a positive or a negative for him.

Those were his gymnasts, his girls, the ones that would make America proud when they took center stage in London in August. He had no doubt that they would dominate. They were the most talented collection of gymnasts the nation and perhaps even the world had ever seen. It had been a tough road to get them there, but they were on the cusp of something huge. Each and every day he did his best to prepare them for how much their world was going to change, but even he wasn't ready for what could come after the Olympics. That meant goodbye and for the first time in his life, Sasha couldn't imagine what that would look like.

"Alright, ladies," he bellowed from the doorway of his office, causing all four to stop dead in their tracks. He smiled at them kindly. They had been working hard lately and even Lauren had quit complaining about the long schedule. "I am calling a lockdown for you four all weekend. It's been awhile since we had team bonding and with the National Team practice next week, and I want to make sure we are all on the same page."

"You're keeping them here this weekend?" Summer asked as she came up the stairs and slipped past him into the office. "I had no idea. Did you need me to stay or is Kim doing it? I can just rearrange some things..."

Sasha tightened his mouth into a polite smile and shook his head. "I will be staying with the girls. It's important that they are properly bonded with me, and there are some things I want to work on with them. I hadn't said anything because I only just decided," he told her. "I will speak with Kim about it later when she gets back from her errands. I am also going to close the gym on Saturday. The Rock belongs to these four girls this weekend."

Meanwhile, back on the floor, the four girls had collapsed on the mat to stretch out and start to cool down. "Great, I was supposed to see Carter Saturday," Kelly grumbled as she pulled her knee up to her chin in a deep stretch. Payson shot her a dirty look as she stretched her own calf. "What? I've been so busy lately that I haven't seen him in ages. Look, I get it, PK, but we're not all robots like you."

"God, you sound like Lo," Payson mumbled before Lauren punched her lightly on the shoulder. Payson shrugged in the general direction of her friend. "What, it's true? Kelly is usually just as focused as anyone. You and Kaylie are the ones who get caught up in the personal stuff."

"I'd argue with you if weren't so true," Kaylie replied plainly. "But Kelly is right. When's the last time you saw daylight on a weekend? I know that we need to train, but I haven't had any down time that didn't include my parents or my therapist in ages."

"Come on, Pay, you know they are right. We could all use a little freedom," Lauren pointed out carefully. "Daddy left a newspaper on the table this morning and I saw the sale ads. Do you know how long it's been since I've been shopping? My credit card is in some serious need of retail therapy. I haven't worn heels in almost a month."

"Well, you are welcome to wear them if you think you can do a handspring in them, Miss Tanner," Sasha announced as he interrupted their complaint session. He wasn't surprised that Payson had been the lone voice of descent amongst the banter of the typical teenaged conversation. "But the four of you will be happy to know that there will be no training this weekend. I am going to allow you to have movies and junk food and gossip like any good sleepover appropriate for girls your age."

Payson arched her eyebrow and frowned in his direction. "We're not going to train? Then what's the point? We can have a sleepover at my house or Kaylie's or even Lo's. We don't need to be here to do that."

"Yes, you do," Sasha told her pointedly. "And no arguing, Ms. Keeler. I am your coach and you will do as I say. Just because you will not be working out does not mean that this little exercise is pointless."

With that, Sasha left the girls to finish cooling down. Feeling adequately put in her place, Payson was quiet as the others discussed what movies to bring from home and what treats they were going to indulge in. Kaylie seemed especially excited at the prospect of having smores, a good indication that she was still dealing well with her recovery. Payson supposed that at least that was something good that would come out of this weekend.

"I guess Austin will just have to do without me this weekend," the brunette smiled as she pulled on a pair of pink sweats over her black leo. Lauren faltered slightly next to her before painting a fake grin on her face. Only Payson noticed the uncomfortable way her friend smoothed down her braids at the mention of Austin. "Speaking of which, I think I will go call him to let him know I will be out of commission. Whatever will he do without me?"

"I think he'll manage, Kay," Lauren giggled, praying that it didn't come off fake. "I'm going to get going, too. I need to grab some things from home before Sasha puts us on lock down. I'll catch you guys later."

Payson grabbed her bag and started to jog after Lauren. "Hey, Lo, can you give me a ride? My mom is out right now, and I need to pick up some stuff at the house," she asked. Lauren nodded as Payson told Kaylie and Kelly that they would see them later. When they were finally alone and outside the suddenly stifling confines of the Rock, she turned with concern to her friend. "You alright?"

"Nothing I'm not used to," Lauren snapped crisply. As soon as she said the words, she knew that they were unwarranted. Payson watched as Lauren physically readjusted her demeanor by rolling her shoulders back and taking a deep breath. "It's a coping mechanism that Sasha suggested. Whenever I start to get to where I want to put up walls and act out, I have to stop, take a deep breath and think about what I want to do or say."

"And how's that working for you?"

"Right now?" she asked rhetorically. "Well, I can think of a few things I would like to do to Sasha Belov, no offense." Payson smiled knowingly. Sasha could be trying, but to know him was to love him and no one knew him better than she did. "It actually works pretty well, and to answer your question, I'm fine. Kaylie is with Austin. They're happy and in love, right? I told you that I wouldn't do anything to interfere in that. Kaylie needs me to be a good friend, and I am going to do everything in my power to give her that."

"Still, I know it can't be easy," Payson commiserated. She couldn't believe what she was about to confess. "I know it's not easy for me to watch him with someone else. When he was with Summer...I don't even have the right to be jealous or upset, but my mom always says that hurt feelings aren't rational. Even though I know you are doing the right thing by keeping your distance from Austin, I know it's hard. You told me that I could talk to you about Sasha. I just want you to know that it works both ways. Any time you want to vent about the Austin situation, I'm here for you."

Lauren smiled at Payson as she unlocked her sporty silver convertible and slipped behind the wheel. "Thanks, Pay, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. After everything I did, I never thought you would forgive me. I guess I wouldn't have blamed you. We both know how I would be if the situation were reversed," she pointed out. "But you know as well as anyone that I don't really have any friends. I don't really have much of anyone. My dad tries, but it's not always enough."

Payson was grateful not for the first time for the safety and security of her All-American nuclear family. Even if her dad did have to travel back and forth from Minnesota, she never had to worry about someone not being there for her. She had an amazing family, wonderful friends and Sasha. Lauren really didn't have much outside her dad and the people at the Rock. She had her grandmother, but they didn't really see the Tanner matriarch much. After Summer had made her opinion of both Lauren and Steve known, Lauren had been left pretty much on her own again.

"Well, you have me and you have Kaylie. I think you'd even have Kelly if you would let her in a little more," Payson said gently. She knew that a friendship with the newcomer had to be Lauren's idea for it to work. The Queen of the Beam was easily manipulated in that way. As long as it was on her terms, it could be the best thing that had ever happened. However, if it was dictated to her, Lauren would instantly get defensive. "And even though you might not want to see it, you have Austin. I saw him talking to you earlier this week. It's clear that he values your friendship with him. You even have Sasha. I think things are really getting better for our little Rock family."

"Our little incestuous Rock family," Lauren joked. "Seriously, Pay, it's kind of sick. You're the only one who hasn't had a thing for Carter, but you and I both went after Max. You and Kaylie both dabbled in Nicky Russo. That doesn't even begin to deal with the feelings I have for Austin, who is still dating Kay, and then there are those complicated feelings you have for Sasha."

Payson covered her face and shook her head. "We don't see anyone else," she retorted. "We are all hormones and teenage angst, as my mother likes to point out. When we are thrown together like we are as often as we are without any other people around, she thinks it's inevitable that we're going to break Sasha's no-dating rule. We're also the only other people who could ever understand what it's like to live this way. When I was going to regular high school, I would watch those kids and wonder if they knew how much time they were wasting. I thought they were crazy for getting caught up in those stupid teenaged problems until I found myself doing it too. We're all capable of it under the right circumstances, and even at the Rock, I think we all do it. It's just at a different level when you have schedules like we do."

"Wait, wait, wait," Lauren laughed aloud as she made a right turn a few blocks from the Keeler house. "Did you just admit that you have something in common with these so-called normal teenagers? That is not the Payson Keeler I know."

"Ha ha," Payson deadpanned. "Look, all I'm saying is that I get where you were coming from when you were caught up in Carter, okay? I know I don't always act like it, but it's my job to be a leader. When your head isn't in the game, mine needs to be for the sake of the team. If one of us falls, we all fall. We already lost Emily. I am not about to do this without you guys. No one is getting left behind."

Lauren looked over at her friend as the car idled at a red light. "You don't have to be strong for us all the time, Pay," she reminded her. "You know that you can lean on us, right? Kaylie, Kelly and me - we all have your back. We got each other. You shouldn't be the only one to hold us together. I'm sorry that I put you in that situation. I know a lot of it is my fault. I just want you to know I'm working really hard on not being that person anymore."

"I know you are, Lo," Payson reassured her as Lauren pulled the car into the Keelers' driveway. "I don't expect you to suddenly be someone new over night. You're still going to slip up and revert to your old ways. I'm finally starting to realize that no one is perfect, not even me."

"Hard pill to swallow, huh?"

"You have no idea," she agreed with a laugh. "I think sometimes I hold people to unrealistic expectations. I think of them as I want them to be rather than for who they actually are."

"I do the same thing," Lauren replied. "And when people fail me, I feel hurt. I have this obsessive need to hold onto what's mine. I've just lost so much..." Lauren wiped at the back of her eyes with her hand. The last thing she wanted to do was cry. "Anyways, I know everyone thinks I act like I'm entitled."

"Well, you kind of do."

"Okay, I do. I guess I just need to defend what belongs to me. I earned my spot at the Rock, I earned my place in my father's life - they are kind of the only two things I have. If I lose either of those, what would I have?"

"You'd still have me and you'd still have Kaylie," Payson reminded her. "We're not going to abandon you, Lo. If we have made it this far, I think you should be able to trust in our friendship. You're the only one who knows about my feelings for Sasha. You and Kaylie seem to be getting along better. We are here for you no matter what."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Payson laughed before pulling her clueless friend into a hug. "And like I said about Kelly..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, one step at a time, Keeler," Lauren said, rolling her eyes. "I'll work on it, okay? Just promise me that you're not going to replace me with Parker."

"Trust me, no one in the world could take your place," Payson teased. "The world could not handle two Lauren Tanners."

An hour later, the girls arrived back at the Rock to find Austin talking to a heated Kaylie outside the front door. Lauren and Payson held back until Kaylie had stalked off inside the gym, leaving a stunned Austin in her wake. "Alright, I will go check on Kay while you talk to Austin," Payson said. She knew it was risky but Lauren needed the chance to prove herself. Payson also knew that Lauren would do the same thing if the situation were reversed. "Just be good."

"When have I ever been anything but good?" Lauren asked, feigning innocence. She stayed in the car a minute longer until Payson was inside the gym. Grabbing her overnight bag from the backseat, she walked slowly over to Austin. He look apprehensive and lost in thought. "Everything okay?"

"Not really," he admitted. "I don't know what to do about Kaylie. I'm not even sure why I bother anymore." He covered his face with his hands and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about this with you. Kaylie is your friend. I didn't mean to put you in an awkward position."

Lauren smiled up at him and knew that it was borderline flirtatious. There were some things that were so innate that she couldn't help it. She was always going to be just a little daring, even if that wasn't her intention. "I'm your friend too, Austin," she reminded him. "You can tell me anything."

Austin visibly swallowed at her sultry tone. Guys like him knew exactly what that voice meant. He also knew that Lauren and Kaylie had a rough past, one that he wasn't ready to get in the middle of right now. "No, it's fine," he shook his head. "I appreciate it, but I think it's something we just have to work out between us."

"Whatever you say," she shrugged in return before telling him that she would see him later. Just as she was about to disappear inside the gym, Lauren smiled back at him over her shoulder. It was a classic Lauren move, one sure to make the guys take note of what she was putting out there. As Austin's stormy eyes met hers, she knew that she had her intended effect. Something was going to happen with them, she knew for certain right then and there. It would be weeks before either of them would know just what kind of destruction they were capable of causing.

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><p><strong>Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter, especially those repeat reviewers! Any fellow writer knows that those reviews are great for pushing you to write sooner. Leave me a note and let me know what you think of my story!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

The gym was perfectly quiet when Sasha finally emerged from his office. The girls had headed to sleep a few hours ago after watching an impressive roster of teenage movies from the 80s. John Hughes had to have some serious angst in his adolescence to put out a string of films like those, Sasha had reasoned with himself halfway through _Pretty in Pink_. However, the girls were happy enough, and that meant that he was happy. They had all been working so hard lately, and as much as this weekend was about them bonding, it was also about giving them a break. As he had watched Kaylie eat something made of nothing but empty calories and Kelly laugh with the rest of the girls and Lauren actually smile so genuinely that it shone in her eyes and Payson let go long enough to act like her actual age, he knew that the temporary hiatus from training had been worth it.

However, as his eyes landed on the mat below, he saw only three sleeping forms in the dark. He could make out Kaylie and Kelly huddled on the right side, facing each other as if they had fallen asleep mid-sentence in their pink and purple sleeping bags. Lauren was also down there, her blonde hair just visible above the top of her teal sleeping bag. However, the sleeping bag next to her, the unmistakable army green one that probably belonged to Mark Keeler, was noticeably vacant. Of course it had to be Payson that was missing. Unlike the other girls who would have snuck out to see their boyfriends, he knew exactly where he could find the World Champion.

Careful to be quiet as he slipped down the stairs and out into the hallway toward the annex, Sasha mentally prepared himself for the lecture he was going to give Payson. The whole point of this weekend was getting them to rest, and the blonde seemed set on sneaking in some kind of training while she was stuck at the Rock. However, any plan he had been working on easily flew out of the window when he happened upon her on the beam.

There was something just so stunning about watching Payson at work. She was completely in the zone as he watched her from the doorway. Her eyes were fixed on the wall ahead as she pirouetted and worked her way across the four-inch piece of wood. Once again, he found himself caught up in the grace of her beauty. It was so innate and so rare that a girl, even a well-decorated gymnast like Payson, possessed such a deadly combination at her age. Like a moth to a flame, he couldn't control his natural attraction to her. It was if God had created gravity just to draw his body to hers.

"What are you doing?" he demanded as he came further into the annex, glad that his eyes were shadowed by the mostly dim room. Payson didn't stop as she did a pair of aerials toward the front of the beam. "Payson! What are you doing in here?"

Payson glanced at him sideways as she dipped and flexed her toes expertly. "Be quiet or you will wake the others," she warned. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I might as well get a little work in on the beam. Lauren is really coming along with that new dismount, huh?"

She wasn't even fazed as she did a perfect back walkover into a layout for a dismount. Once her feet were planted firmly on the mats, she pulled up with a confident smile on her beautiful face. Sasha couldn't help but feel a little at awe of her natural comfort around him. She wasn't at all intimidated or apologetic about being caught doing something that she shouldn't. It was if Payson knew that she belonged exactly here. When she bit down on her bottom a little and smiled at him again, he was pretty sure he knew exactly where he belonged as well.

And then in a flash, she had lifted herself back onto the beam in a straight handstand, only to lower herself down into the splits. He was quiet as she worked her way through a more ballet-oriented routine, one that she never would use in competition but left him feeling breathless. There was a mature grace to her movements, the first time he had really seen her taken on a dancer's form when it came to the apparatus. She usually preferred the power moves on the beam to the graceful, leaving the more artistic performances to girls like Lauren and Kaylie. Yet, as she arched her back and tossed her hair prettily over her shoulder, he knew that she was more than capable of bringing something like this to the beam. It was just another side of her he was getting to know.

"Alright, I think you've had enough," he announced finally, when really he knew it was him that had had enough. Payson stuck her bottom lip out in a mock pout as he came over and offered his hand up to help her down. She grasped it and then slid off the beam easily, the entire length of her body brushing against his. The air between them was static and electric, so much that he could almost swear that little sparks were popping off their still-clasped hands. Payson kept her eyes locked with his until she stepped back and away from him. "Right, so you should get back in there."

"I should?" she asked cheekily, and he could swear for a minute that she was flirting with him. Not sure whether he should brush it off as wishful thinking or the ungodly hour, he decided to ignore it. "Now why would I want to do that, Sasha? I just told you that I couldn't sleep. The last thing I want to do is listen to Kelly Parker snore or try to count the tiles on the ceiling when I could be in here working."

"You're supposed to be resting, Payson," he told her. It was clear from his tone that he was genuine and that made Payson soften. "It's in the middle of the night, and you were in here alone. What if something had happened? And before you give me the lecture about how you can take care of yourself, I know that already. I just couldn't stand it if something happened to you while I wasn't paying attention."

Payson locked her eyes with his, allowing the electricity from earlier to creep back into the darkened annex. "And you're paying attention now?" It was a dangerous question to ask, they both knew, but that didn't stop her from saying exactly what was on her mind. She was unfiltered in an entirely different way than Lauren, and that could easily get them both in trouble. "Whatever, fine, I'll go back to bed."

She didn't even bother to look at him again as she hastily retreated out of the annex, her bare feet pounding on the mat as she crossed the gym. Sasha waited until the door slammed shut with a loud echo before finally letting go of the breath he didn't know he he had been holding in. "La naiba!" he muttered to himself in Romanian before forcing himself to take a few deep breaths. These girls – this girl – would surely be the death of him.

Meanwhile, Payson was huffing to herself as she slid back into her dad's old sleeping bag. She hadn't intended to worry Sasha or create such a moment with him, but there was just something about being around him that made her lose her inhibitions. It was a dangerous risk to take this close to London. They had been over this. She knew all the reasons that it wouldn't work. And yet, she couldn't shake the distinct feeling that it could work if they both wanted it badly enough. After a moment like that, she knew that wanting it wasn't the issue. Their problem had always been and still was fear.

The blonde hadn't realized that she wasn't the only gymnast still awake when she had slipped back into the main gym. Lauren had been awake, wondering where both her friend and her coach had disappeared to in the middle of the night. She had contemplated getting up to find out for herself when she had heard Payson's footsteps. It was only when she had heard Sasha come in a few minutes after that she decided not to say anything. The old her would have pocketed the secret for use later, but this version of Lauren knew that she needed to keep her friend's secret.

A few hours later, the harsh rays of the morning sun finally crept into the Rock, sending all four of the girls deeper into their sleeping bags. Sasha smiled over the four of them with a wicked smile before pressing the play button on the gym's stereo. Booming Russian classical music filled the air and jolted all four gymnasts awake. Kaylie muttered something in Spanish before rolling back over and yanking her pillow over her head while Kelly could only pull her hoodie up and pray that the thin cotton material would block out the harsh sounds interrupting her deep REM cycle. Payson sat up and scowled up at him with her arms crossed, looking very much like a petulant child. Lauren simply offered up her middle finger without even attempting to come out of her cocoon.

"Up now, girls!" he demanded loudly, coming down the stairs with a megaphone pressed to his mouth. Payson was on her feet by then, stretching her quad and her arms in her usual morning routine. She reached out her hand to help Kelly up while nudging Lauren with her foot. "Kaylie! Lauren! I said get up! NOW!"

"Fine, we're up, we're up," Lauren grumbled as she pulled back the flap of her sleeping bag and crawled begrudgingly out on the mat. "Did I ever tell you that I hate you?"

"Quite frequently," he grinned at her, earning yet another dirty look from both her and Payson. "After you girls have gotten ready for the day and eaten a quick breakfast, I have some trust exercises that I would like you to work on together. I am going to pair you off and send you to different parts of the gym. You will work together until lunch. Kaylie, you and Payson are going to take the annex while Kelly and Lauren will be in here."

A half hour later, the girls were in their assigned spots much to their chagrin. Kelly and Lauren were especially displeased to be stuck together, looking at a lengthy questionnaire that Sasha had designed to get them to know each other better. "Favorite band, favorite color, favorite vacation? He's got to be kidding me," Lauren groaned as she scanned the list. "The next thing I know he is going to have us braiding each other's hair and gossiping about whose boyfriend is cuter."

"You can braid your own hair quite well and you don't have a boyfriend," Kelly pointed out uselessly. When Lauren glared at her, she decided to change her direction. "Look, why don't we just answer these and get it over with? Sasha can make us talk, but he can't make us friends."

"Fine, whatever," Lauren agreed. They spent the next five minutes going over the first ten questions that covered some of their basic favorites. However, on the eleventh question, it turned a little more serious. "What is your biggest regret?"

Kelly's eyes went wide as she shook her head. "Uh uh, no way, I don't want to answer that."

"This was your stupid idea, so you're going to answer the damn question."

"I've never told anyone this," she said softly, afraid to look up at Lauren. She knew that the confession was dark and she felt guilty for even thinking these things. "You have to swear that you won't tell anyone."

"That's the whole point of this, right?" she asked rhetorically. "So I am going to keep your secret. You don't have to believe me, but I am actually good at keeping things from people. I'd tell you that you can trust me, but I'm not sure that's true. We're not friends."

Kelly rolled her eyes and shrugged. "At least you're honest," she mumbled. "Alright, well, I guess my biggest regret isn't exactly anything I've done. It's more something that I've thought. You know how bad my mom can be, right? Well, I've kind of wished before that I didn't have a mom. Or maybe I wished that I had a different mom. I feel bad even telling this because of your..." Kelly's voice broke as she looked up at Lauren. She knew better than to finish that sentence, even if this was supposed to be a trust exercise. "Anyhow, yeah, I just really hate her sometimes."

Once upon a time, Lauren would have yelled at the girl that she should be grateful that she even had a mom, but she had seen Mrs. Parker up close and personal. The woman was a stage mom to a tee. She was kind of awful, and she couldn't really blame Kelly for thinking that way. "That's not so bad," she reasoned. "We're all teenagers. We're supposed to hate our parents. My dad is pretty much my entire family and there are still times when I can't stand him. He can get so caught up in everything here that it kind of sucks. And when he was dating Emily's mom, I even thought I might lose him. It's a hard thing to see when you start to realize your parents aren't perfect."

"I never thought my mom was perfect," Kelly admitted. "She signed away my amateur status when I was so young. She never even asked me what I wanted, not that I would have even known at that point. Instead, she turned me into a breadwinner and put my face and name on anything and everything that she could. My entire life has been sponsored."

"Well, we're almost eighteen, right?" she asked, which made Kelly smile and nod her head. "We will be Olympic gold medalists, and no one, not even our parents or Sasha, will be able to tell us what to do. Our lives will be our own again. We just have to hang in there in the mean time."

"I'd say it seems like a long time away, but it will all go so fast."

"Yeah, and in the mean time, you have your team to get you through," Lauren reminded her. Payson had reminded her that it was important for all four of them to be a team, and that included Kelly. "We don't have to be friends, Kelly, but I am going to try to be here for you as a teammate. That much I can promise you."

While Kelly and Lauren were coming to an understanding in the main gym, Kaylie and Payson had pretty much abandoned their assignment next door in the annex to gossip about Austin. "I saw you guys get into it yesterday. It looked like it was pretty bad," Payson said. "Do you want to talk about it? It might help if you vented a little bit."

Kaylie trailed her perfectly manicured fingers through her dark hair. "Things have just been a little intense with Austin lately," she confessed. "After he told the entire world he loved me at Worlds, I thought that things were finally going to happen with us. I guess they did for awhile, but lately it's been so stagnant. He's been distracted and I don't know what's up. He's just so distant."

Payson had a few theories of her own, most that dealt with a certain blonde next door, but she wasn't about to tell Kaylie about any of that. Lauren had promised that she was going to stay away from Austin, and Payson was going to try to trust her. That meant giving Kaylie the only advice that she could. She knew that her words of wisdom weren't all that helpful, but it was kind of all she had.

"I think you should just keep trying to talk to him, Kay," she told her. "I mean, Austin loves you, right? Those kind of feelings just don't go away." Payson knew that much for sure herself. "I am sure he will open up about whatever is bothering him soon enough."

After Sasha had finally rescued them from the hell of bonding, the four were able to convince him that pizza was a good idea and Lauren was sent alone to retrieve a pie from the Pizza Shack. She was happy to be free, if only briefly, to enjoy the warm sunshine from the comfort of her convertible. The drive across town to the casual hangout proved to be too short, and before she knew it, she was parking next to a familiar motorcycle. _What is Austin doing here?_ she wondered to herself as she locked her car doors.

She didn't have to wait long for the answer when she came into the restaurant. Austin was at a table alone in the corner, a half-eaten pizza and a mostly-empty pitcher of beer in front of him. He looked sad and pathetic, and Lauren knew that he was drowning his sorrows in the alcohol and empty calories over the fight she'd see yesterday.

"Your pizza will be right out, Lauren!" Razor called from the behind the counter.

Lauren smiled at him and then glanced over at Austin. Razor's sudden announcement had made her presence known. She felt a twinge of something happy when Austin's lips twitched into something resembling a smile. "Mind if I sit while I wait?" she asked, dropping into the chair across from him. She picked up his mug and sniffed it before pushing it away. "Beer in the afternoon? That's new, Tucker, even for a partier like you."

"Kay's busy, so what else am I supposed to do?" he pouted. "I'm surprised Sasha even let you escape."

"Yeah, well, someone had to feed the troops," she said, gesturing toward the kitchen. "I have strict orders to pick up the pizza and get straight back to the gym."

"Well, that's not the Lauren Tanner I know," he teased. "The girl I know loves to break the rules."

"She did, but rule breakers don't go to the Olympics and they don't keep their friends," she announced. "So I am going to wait with you until Razor brings my pizza and then I am going back to the Rock to eat it with my teammates."

As if on cue, Razor delivered the pizza to the table. He appraised her appreciatively, taking time to rake his eyes down her body before landing on her face. Lauren had always liked hanging out with him when Carter had worked at the Shack. He was sweet and funny, even if he was a total flirt. He had also been a good friend to both of them, keeping their relationship a secret when she was trying to hide it from everyone.

"Looking nice, Lo," he murmured with a cocky smile. "I haven't seen you around much."

"Oh, you know," she smiled vaguely. "How much do I owe you?"

"For my favorite Rock girl? It's on the house."

"Just add it to my tab," Austin announced, earning a strange look from Razor and an incredulous glare from Lauren. "I mean, since it's for Kaylie and I can get reimbursed."

Lauren shook her head and pulled her wallet from her designer bag. "That's nice for both of you to offer, but Sasha sent me with money. The gym can write it off," she said before handing over a twenty-dollar bill. "Keep the change."

"Thanks," Razor smiled.

Lauren knew he was partly only doing it to piss of Austin. She had no idea why Austin was acting like this. It was almost as if he was jealous. Not allowing herself to contemplate what that would mean for Kaylie or believe that he had any feelings for her, Lauren grabbed her bag and looked between the two. "Nice seeing you, Razor," she said, patting his shoulder.

"You're something else," Razor mumbled with a low whistle. He stayed frozen in his spot until the door slammed open and then returned to the counter to wait on a family that had just come in.

Lauren heard Austin echo Razor's sentiment under her breath, and this time she knew that it had meaning. He was walking a fine line, and she could see herself teetering dangerously close to the edge. "Look, Austin, I don't know what your problem is, but I suggest that you talk to Kaylie and deal with whatever it is. You're not putting me in the middle of this," she told him confidently. "I've been that girl before, but I won't do it with you. Kaylie is my best friend, and you're not worth it."

She didn't even bother to wait for his answer as she strode out of the Pizza Shack with the box tucked under her arm. Lauren had just made it to her car when she started to break down. It took everything she had not to throw caution to the wind, consequences be damned, and go back to the restaurant to tell Austin exactly how she felt. She had meant what she said. He wasn't worth it. Still, that didn't keep from the tears from falling as she gripped her steering wheel, something that only Austin saw as he ran out into the parking lot after her.


	5. Chapter 5

By the time night had fallen, the girls had been properly bonded as well as Sasha could force within the course of twenty-four hours. He had watched them spend the past several hours at least pretending to be carefree teenagers while watching movies and gossiping about the various people in their lives, both ones that he knew and ones he had never heard about in his time at the Rock. He kept his distance enough as to not infringe when Kelly poured her heart out about the Anderson boy who had defected to Denver and was soon to return to Boulder. He could barely hear when Kaylie started to complain about the distance growing wider and wider by the day in her relationship with Austin. He made a mental note of both situations, knowing that they could be problematic in their buildup to London. He also heard the silence from both Payson and Lauren, neither of them relating any kind of similar issues of his own. The only way to remedy that, even possibly, was to pair them together and give them some time alone.

He had noticed the growing bond between his two blonde gymnasts over the past few weeks. After Lauren had fully committed herself to becoming a better person, she had thrown herself into her gymnastics completely. The always-focused Payson had been there to help her teammate and now friend. He was surprised how well they worked together, but there was something between the two that drove them. While the biggest part of him still wanted to protect Payson, he also knew that he had to trust both girls – Lauren to have changed and Payson to take care of herself. It was hard to do, but if Payson could give her a second chance after everything, he wasn't going to interfere. Lauren had made her apologies to him and he had forgiven her.

"Alright, I am going to allow you all to have a little bit of fun before we settle in for dinner," Sasha announced. "I am going to pair you off and let you work out. The only caveat is that you can't do your own routines. I want you to do your partner's routine again exactly how they would do it. Lauren, you are going to be working with Payson. I want strong, concise movements with an artistic flare. You're going to do one of her floor routines."

Lauren's eyes lit up at the announcement. She had been wanting to work a little more on refining her artistic elements but couldn't seem to convince her coach that she could do it without being overly sexy. This was her chance to prove something, if not to him at least herself. "Yes, Sasha," she said dutifully, letting her pleased smile show. He nodded and smiled back at her slightly before turning to Payson.

"Payson, you're going to be doing one of Lauren's beam routines," he instructed her. "I know you have made your routines more graceful lately, but this time, I want to see more pop. I want more sizzle. Really amp up the energy, play to the crowd and the judges."

The daring vibe was one that Payson had always stayed away from purposely. She thought it was the cheap tactic, any easy way out that some girls took when their skills weren't up to par. Though it wasn't the case with the Rock's Queen of the Beam, not all the other so-called sizzlers had the same skill set as Lauren. Still, it couldn't hurt to pick up a few tips, and if it meant gym time, she figured it could at least be useful.

When she hadn't argued, Sasha told Kelly and Kaylie that they would be working together on the bars and the vault. Kelly was to do one of Kaylie's routines and learn how to implement stronger showmanship into her routines. Kelly had always been a crowdpleaser because of her consistency. Learning to smile and draw the crowd in would do her good. Kaylie, on the other hand, needed to learn about power. Kelly's vaults would give her exactly that. They took strength and consistency, power and confidence. Kaylie had been lacking those things lately, and pairing her with Kelly could help her get a little bit of that back.

The girls finally split off to work on their routines as Sasha disappeared back upstairs to do some paperwork. He kept the door open enough to listen to the sounds of their training to float into his office. When the occasional giggle would echo below him, he couldn't help but smile a little. His girls were having fun.

"Alright, Pay, spill it," Lauren demanded once they were away from the others and stretching on the floor. Payson looked up at her innocently, trying to figure out what her friend was talking about. "I woke up this morning and noticed you were missing. Just when I was about to go after you, I realized that Sasha came in just after you came back into the gym. What's up?"

Payson sighed and rolled her eyes. "You can't say anything, Lo. People will assume something happened when it definitively did not," she told her friend harshly. It almost felt like a threat coming from Lauren, even if she didn't mean it that way. There was just a lot of history that dictated she could use something like this as blackmail. "I mean it. Nothing happened."

"Wow, I never planned on telling anyone anything," Lauren retorted. Sure, she had contemplated it for a moment. It was a handy piece of information to have tucked in your back pocket if you needed to get someone to do anything, but that's what the only Lauren would have done. She had promised to try harder to be a good friend. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, Pay. You have to trust me."

She reached up to pat down her patent bun absently. "I know, I'm sorry. I do, Lo, it's just..." Her voice trailed off as she looked up at the empty office window. "I went out into the annex to work out because I couldn't sleep. I guess Sasha came down to check on us and realized I had disappeared. We just argued about it a little. Nothing happened."

"That's it?" Lauren asked suspiciously. "Nothing happened? Hmm, if nothing happened, Pay, then why are you so defensive about it."

"Because even if nothing overtly happened, we both knew a lot was going on beneath the surface," she finally admitted. "It was almost stifling. I've never felt like this before. Why does it have to be Sasha? Why does it have to be now? I wish I could have been like the rest of you and just liked some random boy from the gym who I could at least be with for awhile. I feel like I need to get him out of my system, but I can't even possibly try it until after London. Even then it will be risky."

Lauren smiled and shrugged a little. "Isn't anything ever worth having a little risky? I mean, look at the Olympics. We give up our entire lives in the one-in-a-billion chance that we will end up there. We do things to our bodies that no one should. So much could go wrong, but we put it all on the line just for the smallest of chances to prove that we are the best of the best at what we do. We do that not for the glory or bragging rights. We do it because we truly love the sport. When you love something that deeply, the risk is always going to be worth it."

It was one of those times when Lauren's wisdom surpassed her own, and Payson could see her friend starting to grow a little as a person. "All I know is that I can't be around him like this without wanting to be with him in whatever form it takes on. I've only kissed him once, but every time I close my eyes, I see it all over again," Payson whispered. "I was always afraid that it would make me lose my focus, but it seems to have the opposite effect. I am so set on ignoring whatever this is that I am throwing myself completely in the Rock."

"I wish I could say the same," Lauren complained lightly. She paused for a moment as Payson talked her through a tumbling pass. Lauren ran across the mat and threw a perfect pair of back handsprings into a double twist, punch front. Without missing a beat, she pulled back into her salute and then turned to her friend. "I ran into Austin at the Shack."

This was the first Payson was hearing of this. "Kaylie said that the fight they had was pretty bad," Payson confided. "She was pretty distraught. How was he doing?"

"Drowning his sorrows and feeling sorry for himself over a lot of empty calories," Lauren answered before returning to the corner of the mat to start Payson's dance sequence. She waited while her friend showed her some of the maneuvers and then began to string them together in one solid, fluid movement. "He wasn't doing very well. I could tell that he was feeling sorry for himself and kind of wanted to talk to me about it. I just couldn't, Pay, you know? Can you imagine if Sasha came to you to talk to you about Summer or something? It's just too hard. I basically told him to get his shit together and talk to Kay."

"Yeah, I kind of told her the same thing," Payson recalled. "I told her not to give up without really telling Austin how she felt. Those two...I don't know what's going on there."

Lauren looked over at her friend running toward the vault, her legs stronger than they had been awhile. "Kay deserves to be happy. After everything – Carter and being sick and losing Maeve. Austin was the one thing that made her smile again. I can't be the one who gets in the way of it, not again. I'm trying so hard, Pay, but it feels inevitable. I don't want to slip up again. I try to stay away from him and then he just shows up somewhere that he isn't supposed to be. The thing is, I don't think either of us is seeking it out. It just keeps happening to us."

Lauren Tanner was nothing if not a victim of circumstances or at least that's how she always saw herself. Payson knew that about her and knew that was often how she justified the things she did. However, she could see now that her friend was dreading it. She didn't want to be connected to Austin like she was any more than Payson wanted to be drawn to Sasha like Magnetic North right now. They both craved distance but couldn't seem to find it amidst the cruel hands of fate.

"We just have to keep trying," Payson confided, throwing her arm around Lauren's shoulders and pulling her close for a hug. "Now let's stop commiserating over boys and get these routines down. We need to show Sasha why we should be ranked numbers one and two at the gym."

The two girls laughed together as they went through the routines. Payson was able to pick up some progress on the sizzle that Lauren had been helping her with. She even started to realize that she could use her hips like a weapon, something that sent her the other blonde in braids off in a whirlwind of excitement. Payson helped Lauren tone down those signature sexy moves of hers with the slightest of alterations, like flexing her toes a certain way and pulling her body more inward at times. The slow fluidity of it all gave her a graceful edge that wasn't always there.

After an hour of working out, Sasha returned and went through the rotation with them. All four of them had succeeded well at the assignment, which meant there physical time was over. He then paired them up again but this time to retrieve snacks and more movies for the evening. Kaylie and Lauren would be headed to the grocery store while Payson would go with Kelly to get a couple more DVDs from her house.

Lauren sat tensely behind the wheel as she headed for the health food market a few blocks from the gym. Kaylie was notably quiet for the first several minutes and didn't actually utter a single syllable until they pulled into the parking lot. Finally, tired of the stifling silence, Lauren looked over at her oldest and supposed best friend. "Alright, Kay, what's going on?"

"It's just Austin," she said dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I've already talked to Pay. I know that I just need to talk to him."

"That's probably good advice," Lauren agreed. She couldn't be the one to give her friend advice but she could certainly listen. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. Tell me what's been going on with you."

So Lauren talked about gymnastics and her dad, about things going on at home and a little about her school work. She talked about the things she had missed out on being at the Rock so much and vaguely mentioned her grandmother. While they looked through the aisles for some decent snacks, she told Kaylie about running into Razor at the Shack but left out the part about seeing Austin. She told her about everything except how she happened to be in love with her boyfriend. In Lauren's eyes, leaving out that part meant she was pretty much telling her a whole lot about nothing.

"And what about guys? Lauren Tanner always has her eye on someone. Now that Max is no longer, have you already set your sights on someone else?"

Lauren shook her head as she dropped a sleeve of carob and cashew cookies into the cart. "Nope, I'm completely focused on training," she admitted, feeling only slightly bad that it was a tiny white lie. The only men in my life right now are my dad and Sasha. Considering that one is family and the other is a very angry Romanian, there isn't a lot of potential there."

Kaylie laughed and handed Lauren some of the salt and vinegar chips she knew that Payson secretly loved. "I'm really proud of you, Lo. You've really been dedicated. I wish that I could get my head back in that place, but there is just too much going on," she complained lightly. "I was there before I went to rehab, but since then, it's just been hard to regain my footing. It's like I finally realized that there was life out there, you know?"

Both Payson and Kaylie had stints at a regular high school, something Lauren had never had. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to lose herself like that for a couple of weeks, but she knew given the chance, she would never take it. She belonged at the Rock doing what she did day in and day out. Still, she saw glimpses of life beyond the gym when she was with Carter and then again when her mother died. Things were safe within the four walls of the Rock, but life beyond them could get pretty rough.

Still, she had to commiserate a little with her friend. "Yeah, I get it," Lauren said, even if she didn't fully. Her sense of normalcy had never wavered. She hadn't had that down time. Sure, she had done things like go to parties and date and stay out past curfew. However, it was always followed by an early-morning practice that she wasn't even a minute late for, a closely followed diet and a set of adults monitoring her every motion and decision. "But I wouldn't have it any other way. This is our dream, right? We're almost there, Kay, and then you can be a normal girl if you want. I used to want to be like any other teenager but not anymore. Why pick that when we get to have the extraordinary?"

The girls finally arrived back at the gym to find Kelly and Payson sprawled out on the mat talking to Sasha. Kelly came outside to help Lauren and Kaylie carry everything into the Rock kitchen, leaving Sasha alone with Payson for a moment. It was the first time they'd had alone since being in the annex last night. Payson could tell he was distracted as he traced invisible lines on the mat. He almost seemed nervous.

"Hey, where's your head at?" she asked softly, carefully to keep her eye trained on the door.

"Hmm?" he murmured back without looking up from the blue vinyl dancing beneath his fingertips. The truth was that he didn't know what to do with himself, and he didn't like the lack of control coursing through his veins. He had been fine until Kelly had invited him down there to talk to them. As soon as he had seen Payson laid out like that, her blonde hair arranged around her face, he had lost a distinctive strength in his knees. "Sorry, I'm just thinking about everything."

"Gymnastics?"

He knew he could lie and tell her he'd been thinking about the Rock or routines or competitions. Instead, he finally met her eyes and shook his head. "No, just this," he said softly, waving his hand between them. "I try not to and just when I think I'm succeeding, there you are."

"There I am," she confirmed, drawing her knees up to her chin. "I'm not going to go away, Sasha."

"I know," he replied. "I know that I have to find a way to deal with this. I also know it's not going to be the way you want, Payson, but we decided that it has to be this way. I am a professional."

"We both are," she agreed. "It doesn't mean it's easy."

"No," he nodded, "no, it does not."

"We need to talk about this, Sash. I mean, really talk about it. Outside the Rock, a place where we can actually get a few minutes alone without wondering what parent or gymnast is going to walk in," she told him. "And before you argue with me, you know that it's the only way we're ever going to deal with it. Even if we haven't put a name on it, it's here. We have to put it out there."

"I know, draga mea fata," he said softly, allowing his hand to creep across the mat to hold her wrist for only the briefest of moments before letting it go. "Soon, I promise. We'll make time."

Just then, an unsuspecting Kelly bopped back into the gym and hollered, "Hey, PK, get in here! Lo and Kay found some of those chips you like so much."

"I'm going to go," Payson whispered, nodding her head toward the door before calling out to Kelly that she would be right in. "Wednesday night, after practice, my parents are going to be out. My sister is staying with one of her friends. I could come to your place or we could meet somewhere. Just pick a place and a time and let me know."

Payson grabbed her discarded jacket and pulled it back over her leotard before standing up. Sasha followed after her, looking over her shoulder to make sure that Kelly had went back to the kitchen. Hearing all three of their voices at a distance, Sasha quickly pulled Payson to her and dropped a kiss on top of her head. It was the only safe way he could touch her. "My trailer at nine," he said into her ear before letting her go and walking out of the gym.


	6. Chapter 6

Austin Tucker watched from his perch high on the rings the following Wednesday as Lauren and Kaylie trained together on the bars. The conversation between the two seemed intense and heated, with fire raging in Kaylie's eyes and Lauren remaining surprisingly detached. The latter gymnast tried to stop her teammate and show her what she was doing wrong on the difficult maneuver, but the former World champion wasn't having any of it. He could pretend that he had no idea what had gotten into his girlfriend, but the fight they'd had last Friday had only worsened the already tense relations between them. The terse conversation they'd had prior to her workout certainly hadn't helped matters either. Now, it seemed that poor Lauren was getting the brunt of Kaylie's frustrations, and for once, Austin knew that the spunky blonde didn't deserve it.

It's only when he sees Lauren throw her hands up and Kaylie stalk out of the gym that he dismounts from the rings with a simple double twist to find out what is going on. Lauren is too stunned staring after her friend to notice when he appears by her side. "Sorry about that," he muttered. "That really didn't have anything to do with you. We kind of had an argument before she came in." Austin does his best to smile apologetically up at Lauren, ignoring any kind of twinge that he feels in his heart when she gazes back at him with beautiful confusion.

"That seems to keep happening, doesn't it?" she asked rhetorically before pacing over to the chalk bowl to powder her hands. Gymnasts are working all around them, but for the moment, she is the only one he sees. Lauren is instantly focused on her sport and her routine, letting go of whatever had happened with Kaylie to put her everything into the next three minutes. Austin had been like that before he came to the Rock, before getting wrapped up in the Rock Rebels. Now it seemed like his life was always getting in the way of training.

Lauren worked flawlessly through the routine, landing squarely on her feet and earning a brief round of applause from Sasha. After telling her to readjust her hand position, he told her to take a few minutes to ice her muscles before breaking for lunch. He also suggested that Austin either try to focus on his own practice or get out of his gym so that the others could use the equipment. Lauren laughed quietly at the reprimand as she stretched out her muscles and didn't even pretend to hide her pleased smile when both Sasha and Austin scowled in her direction.

Deciding that there was no way he was going to be productive in the Rock this morning, he followed Lauren back toward the training room to indulge in watching a pretty girl take an awful ice bath. She didn't say much as she started to carry buckets of ice back and forth between the machine and the tub. He could have helped her but she didn't ask and he didn't offer. Instead, he took up residency in one of the plush recliners and grinned happily as she struggled to fill the tub. It was a ritual they all knew too well and overtly hated. Ice baths weren't pleasant for anyone.

Much to her credit, Lauren barely hissed as she slipped into the frigid bath. She seemed almost relaxed as she leaned her braided head back against the porcelain and stretched her tired limbs beneath the layers of frozen water. "Alright, Tucker, spill it. What's got you so inside your head that you not only couldn't focus on your training but found it necessary to follow me back here instead of going after your girlfriend?"

Austin lazily dragged his gaze over to Lauren and met her wide, wondering eyes. He could only shake his head as he scrubbed his hands over his face in emotional exhaustion. "We had another argument this morning. Kaylie thinks I'm not just distracted from gymnastics but also our relationship," he admitted. Even as he said the words, he knew that they were both true and troublesome. There was no way he should be talking to Lauren about this when he couldn't even open up to his own girlfriend. And yet, here he was, about to spill his guts to the biggest gossip at the Rock. "I don't know what's up with us, Lo. We haven't been on the same page for weeks, and when I try to talk to Kay about it, she won't hear me. It's like she refuses to see that maybe this thing has run its course."

Lauren took a deep breath and nodded thoughtfully. She had seen this coming more than a week ago, only to have it confirmed that night at the Pizza Shack. "Accepting that something that matters so much to you is over isn't easy, Austin," she told him. "I held onto Carter a lot longer than I should have because I couldn't take the failure. We're elite gymnasts. We are used to being the best, to succeeding at everything we do. Losing you means that Kaylie failed at making the relationship work. Even if she does see that it has run its course, girls that need control like her won't just walk away."

"I should have never told her I loved her. I meant, I really did, but it just put a new kind of pressure on things way too soon," he muttered before looking over at Lauren. She had a perceptive smirk on her pretty face, like she had seen it coming from a million miles away. "I don't know. I just got wrapped up in everything that was going on. I was so worried about her and I wanted to save her because I couldn't do that for my sister. And when she finally got help and started to get better, I felt too much too fast. Kaylie is an amazing girl, but she deserves better than anything I can give her."

"I agree," Lauren shot back automatically. "She probably deserves better than any guy could give her. God knows that she has certainly deserved a better friend than I have been to her these last few years. But that's one of the amazing things about Kay. Most of the time, she doesn't care about what she should be getting. She loves the people that she has in her life. We are lucky enough to be two of those people. I don't know about you but I'm not willing to mess that up for anything in the world."

"Anything?" Austin asked with a raised eyebrow. There was a lot more to that question than the single word allowed. Lauren nodded silently to confirm that her friendship with the brunette came first, certainly before anything he wasn't saying between them right now. "You're a surprisingly good friend, Tanner."

Lauren smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, well, chalk it up to the Keeler effect. She has this way of being so Pollyanna that you just want to be a good friend," she joked. Austin knew that she wouldn't be comfortable with giving herself enough credit about being a decent person and told her as much. "I kind of have this track record if you haven't heard, Austin. I stole my best friend's boyfriend. Whatever this is, whatever we're saying but not saying here, it can't happen. We can both pretend that nothing is going on, but we're not stupid. You and I, we're cut from the same cloth, and Kaylie deserves better than that from both of us."

"And yet, it feels inevitable, doesn't it?" he asked. The question wasn't charged with meaning or even a dare that she couldn't uphold her word. It simply meant that they both knew that whatever was going on between them was going to happen whether they liked it or not. The only thing they could do was try to control the timing to minimize the damage. "I don't want to hurt her, Lauren. I really don't."

"So don't. Talk to her, break up with her, make up with her – do whatever you have to do, but do not put me in the middle of it. I'm serious, Austin," she choked out as tears threatened to fall. "I think I've had enough of this. I'm going to go take a shower."

Austin watched as she slipped from the tub and grabbed a fluffy towel before heading to the women's locker room. Payson came in as Lauren was leaving and tried to call after her friend. When she spotted a perplexed Austin cradling his head in his hands in the recliner, she could only shake her head to herself. She didn't need to ask what was going on. She had seen Kaylie run out of the gym earlier and knew the scared look in Lauren's eyes well. The Olympic gold medalist currently sulking in the corner was behind all of it.

Payson slammed the door and turned the lock on the knob in an effort to get Austin's full attention. His eyes snapped up to meet hers. "Listen up, Tucker, we have to talk," she ordered as she slipped into the chair across from him. "You are messing with the balance of my team, and up to now, I have kept my mouth shut. However, Lauren is the second girl you sent out o f the gym this morning, and I will be damned if this team falls apart over some cocky guy who isn't worth it."

Austin was stunned at the otherwise peaceful blonde's defiant tone. "Sasha let you come into our home to work out here. He opened the doors to our gym, to the Rock, because you're _the_ best male gymnast in the world," she continued. "He didn't do it so that you could come in here and screw up a team of girls who have been working their asses off with your stupid swagger and supposedly charming smile. Lauren and Kaylie are just getting back to a good place. You are not going to mess that up for them, do you hear me? I will not allow it."

"Now I know that Lauren comes off as strong, but you know as well as I do that she is messed up inside. You guys are too much alike for you not to see it," she said without letting him get a word in edgewise. "She is working so hard not to make the same mistakes and to be a good person this time around. Austin, she can't take you coming at her like this. Whatever you are thinking, whatever you are feeling, you have to back burner it. Lauren has to focus and I won't let you get inside her head."

It's only then that she stops talking long enough to let him respond. "I don't want to hurt either of them, Payson, I really don't," he promised. "I just needed someone to talk to and I know that Lauren gets me."

"Look, those two girls are more than just my teammates, they are my closest friends and are like sisters to me. I will do whatever I have to protect them, even if that means getting you kicked out of the Rock. We are a few months out from the Olympics, Austin, do you know what that means? If you really care about them as much as you say, you have got to shut it down. They deserve their chance. For once in your life, don't be selfish. We know you're more than that persona you put out there. Put their needs first."

With that, Payson slid from her seat and left Austin alone to go find Lauren. She could hear her friend crying even as she came into the locker room. The shower was running full blast, but the curtain was still open as Lauren stood beneath the steamy spray of water fully clothed. Payson bit her bottom lip in concern as she reached behind the other girl and shut off the faucet. Then, she reached for another dry towel and wrapped it around her shoulders before leading her out of the cramped stall. Lauren was sobbing openly at that point, her wet braids matted to her forehead.

"I love him, Pay," were the only words Payson could make out as she pulled the towel tighter around Lauren and cradled her friend against her. "I tried so hard, but I love Austin."

Neither of them knew that Austin had followed them into the locker room once he was sure they were the only two in there. He had just wanted to tell them both that he was going to do his part to stay away. He hadn't expected to hear Lauren crying or hear her tearful confession. Austin knew that he should turn on his heel and walk out of the locker room. It was what the good guy would do, but he had never claimed to be that person. Despite what Payson said to him earlier, he knew he had to go to Lauren. He had set all this in motion in the first place.

Austin sat down on the other side of Lauren and carefully pried her off Payson's shoulder and into his arms. Payson started to argue with him but he held up a gentle hand to stop it. "I got her," Austin said firmly as Lauren turned her face into his chest. He carefully pulled the elastic from the end of her braid and untangled the wet braids. "Pay, can you keep look out and give us a minute? I need to talk to Lo."

Payson was going to protest until she saw the fierce protectiveness in Austin's eyes. She nodded quietly before whispering, "If you hurt her, I will kill you."

When they were alone again, Lauren pulled back slightly and stared up at him. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it," he told her softly before brushing a stray strand of hair from her wet eyes. "Lauren, you have to know that I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I know it's bad, it's so bad. I hate that I couldn't control it. I didn't want to be just this thing that happened to you."

He wasn't saying what he meant and it didn't even really make sense, but Lauren still seemed to understand him. "Kaylie barely trusts me, Austin. I can't love you, I just can't," she whimpered. "It's not like with Carter where I can justify it because I wanted him first. I don't have any rights to you."

"Oh, Lauren," he murmured as he pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head. He couldn't believe how weak he sounded, so unlike himself. "You have every right, and that's the part that makes this such a fucking mess."

"You have to end things with her, Austin. Even if we're not going to be together and nothing happens after we leave this locker room, I can't lie to Kaylie. She might not be my best friend any more, but I still love her. We've been through so much that I won't let you hurt her anymore than this already has. Either you tell her it's over or I have to."

"I won't put you through that," he retorted automatically. He knew that this was going to kill both of the girls, and he felt a little bad that he was significantly more worried about the girl in his arms than the one he had claimed to love in front of all the press. "I don't know what I am going to do about the rest of it but you're right about talking to Kaylie. She has to hear it, and it needs to come from me."

Lauren took a deep breath and shuddered on the choked sob. "I can't be with you, Austin," she told him. "It's not that I don't want to. God, I want you so much..." Her voice trailed off as she mentally regrouped. "But this has to come first. Gymnastics is all I can focus on right now. I only have one chance, and I need these girls to get there. I have a whole lifetime of dreams wrapped up in Payson and Kaylie. I have to do this with them."

"And I don't know if I can bear to watch you do it without me," he confessed honestly.

"I know," Lauren whispered, biting her bottom lip as his hands rubbed up and down her back. "You can't leave either, though. It's so selfish to ask, but I need you here too. Knowing that you are going to be there after this is over – I won't have any regrets that way if I know there's still a chance. If you left, Austin..."

The tears started to fall again as Austin gathered her in his arms and pulled her against his chest. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he vowed in her ear. "We just have to hang in there a little while longer until I figure some things out. I am so sorry I am putting you through this. You have to know I didn't plan it. I didn't see you coming at all."

"They never do," she joked through the tears. "Can I ask you something?"

Austin nodded his permission with a singular, "Anything."

"You said you loved Kaylie. Do you still?"

"I love her like a friend. Kaylie is an amazing girl."

"And do you...do you love me?"

Austin looked down in her eyes and nodded silently. God help him, he was crazy about the blonde in his arms. She was the only girl who had ever really gotten him and still confused the hell out of him. "Yeah," he answered finally. "I do. I love you."

Lauren tucked her arms beneath his and hugged him tightly, resting her ear against his chest so that she could listen to his heart racing. It was the first time in a long time that she had felt completely at peace when she wasn't on the gym floor. She was safe here with Austin, and that was something she had never had with another person in her entire life. She had always been the second choice or the consolation prize, but she wasn't that with him. It wasn't even a question to her. It was going to be a long road filled with some pretty significant bumps, but she had no doubt then that she was going to end up with Austin.

"So we will put this on hold until after you clear things up with Kaylie and after the Olympics. Nothing before then," she announced. "And as much as I really want to kiss you right now, which trust me is so very much, I won't do it until you've broken up with her. It might even be awhile then. I just know that the emotional part is bad enough. I won't help you physically cheat on your girlfriend."

Austin nodded his head in agreement before hugging her one last time. "I should probably go," he said regretfully. The last thing he wanted to do was leave her like this, but it was time for some distance. Lauren had given him a time line and he had to respect it. He kissed her forehead gently before brushing another one on her knuckles before letting go of her hand. "I love you, Lo."

He didn't wait for a response that would never come as he slipped out of the locker room. Payson scowled at him before scurrying inside to retrieve her friend. Lauren was still hunched over on the bench but all the tears were gone. In its place was a small but mournful smile. "He said that he loves me, Pay," she told her friend. "Isn't that just grand?"


	7. Chapter 7

"You have to be my excuse."

The last thing Payson had expected when she had made plans with Sasha was to need an excuse. Her parents and her sister were taken care of, so it should have been smooth sailing for the pair of blondes. What she hadn't counted on was a needy Kaylie and an overly eager Kelly wanting to have an impromptu sleepover at the Cruz household just a few days after their too-long weekend locked in together at the Rock. When the two of them had cornered her in the locker and made it abundantly clear that they had no plans to ask their fourth teammate to join them, Payson had conveniently used Lauren as her excuse.

Lauren looked up from zipping her gym bag and met her friend's eyeline. "You want me to be your excuse?" she asked rhetorically. "Well, if I am going to agree to that, I kinda gotta know what I'm agreeing to, Pay. Who are you trying to avoid and why are you trying to avoid them?"

Payson tucked a strand of hair behind her ears as her eyes darted up toward the office. A brilliant grin lit up Lauren's face as the realization struck her and she squealed beneath her breath as she started to reach for Payson. "Okay, okay, calm down," Payson commanded quietly as Lauren hugged her excitedly. Lauren couldn't help it if this was the most daring thing that her friend had ever done. "I just need you to cover for me with Kaylie and Kelly. They wanted to have a sleepover or something, and I sort of said that I couldn't come because we had plans. Since they weren't planning to invite you..."

An apologetic look crossed Payson's face as she realized what she was saying. "It's fine, Pay," Lauren assured her, patting her shoulder as she tried to shake it off herself. It still hurt sometimes that they wanted to permanently exclude her, especially if it meant that Kaylie was growing closer to her arch nemesis by the day. Lauren and Kaylie were trying to get along the best they could, but with things like they were with Austin, she was almost glad that her teammates didn't want her around. It helped her feel a little less guilty. "I'll cover you to them. You do what you need to do with Sasha and then come over to my house to spend the night for real. You're going to give me all the gory and embarrassing details for agreeing to be your cover."

As much as she wanted to argue with Lauren, she was almost relieved to have someone that she could confide this in. She knew that it was risky to trust Lauren, but there was something different about this time that made her believe she could do it. They both had their secrets and needed someone to share them with. Payson knew everything about Austin. That was all the security she needed to know that Lauren would keep her mouth shut about Sasha.

Two hours later, however, she wasn't sure that she had the courage to even knock on the door to Sasha's trailer. She had sat in her car for at least fifteen minutes watching his shadow move past the windows, wondering if this was the best idea she had ever had or a disaster waiting to happen. Knocking on his door hadn't brought her any closer to clarity. They had come this far, and she owed it to the part of her heart that seemed incapable of moving on to find out what was waiting for her on the other side. Her future, whatever that meant, was waiting.

"Payson," he exhaled softly as he pulled the door open. Gone was her usual bun and leotards that he was used to seeing day in and day out the gym. It wasn't replaced with the dressed-up version who had accompanied him to the ballet or even the casual version that he had see around the Keeler house. No, this was an entirely different version of Payson. He couldn't put his finger on it exactly, but he knew that it was beautiful.

She moved past him and came into the living room, dropping her purse absently on the counter as she wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously. He watched her survey the photographs again, lingering on one of his at the gymnastics and then another of the two of them together after the Worlds. She wasn't sure who had taken it,but they had caught this perfect moment where Payson and Sasha appeared lost in each other. She smiled at the photograph and then turned to him with that same joy dancing in her beautiful eyes.

"I didn't know if I should come until this moment," she told him before taking a step closer to him. Sasha's face softened at the simple confession. "I keep trying to figure out how this is going to work, Sash. The logical part of me, the one that has guided me my entire life, knows that it can't. I thought I would show up here and just have answers. I thought everything would just come to me. But I'm no closer to figuring it out now as I was when I kissed you."

Sasha reached for her hand and led her over to the small sofa in his makeshift living room. "I am so used to knowing exactly what to do," he explained to her in his accented voice."That's the role of a gymnast. We plan out our every movement step by step, we know where we are headed and what we need to do to get us there. With you, Payson, I can't see the path that lies ahead. Every step has been taken blindly. It's a frustrating thing for people like you and me. We want to have control, to know how it's going to end up."

"I can't control it," Payson shook her head, gesturing around her. "_Obviously._ I know that I should ignore it, at least until after the Olympics, but I'm not even sure that's the right thing. We keep talking about it like you're a distraction for me, but you make me better, Sasha. You make me a better gymnast and a better person. You push me to try harder, to dream bigger – in gymnastics and in life."

No one had spoken as openly and as passionately about him before. He loved the version of himself that Payson saw. He was suddenly this man who wasn't just flawed but worthy of her respect, of her adoration, of her love. No one had ever given that to him so freely before. But as awesome as it was to have those things, he also knew that he owed it to her to think beyond the moment.

"There isn't a world right now where we can be together, Payson. There are rules about these things, both at the Rock and with the National Team. We could hide it, but I won't ask you to do that. You shouldn't have to, and I refuse to keep you a secret like you're something shameful," he said. "If we were to be together...no, _when_ we are together, I want to share it with the world. I won't lie to everyone about something that means so much."

"So..."

"So we are going to go about this the right way. I am going to talk to my lawyer and find out all the rules. You're eighteen so we don't have any legal issues, but there are the contracts that we both signed when we came onto the National Team. I need to know what our options are and what this could mean for both of us. And we are going to talk to your parents. I spend entirely too much time around your mother to keep this from her. If you are going to commit to being with me, I want to go about it the right way. Your family means everything to you, and I won't be a reason that there is any distance between you and them."

It was an entirely different route than most people would have taken their story, she knew. Most people would expect them to hide, to sneak around everyone's back and hope for the best. But Sasha was too pragmatic to make that realistic. It only made sense that he would see the need to be fully honest about everything. He was right when he said it was the only way it work. For better or worse, she couldn't imagine having to hide how she felt about him from everyone.

Meanwhile, across town, Lauren was sitting on her front porch waiting for her friend to turn up and pretending to read through her anatomy notes for the test she was supposed to have on Friday. Any plans to actually study were quickly put on the back burner when a familiar motorcycle came zooming up her private driveway. It only took a few minutes for Austin to find his way on the swing next to her.

He was quiet, and Lauren knew that he had a lot on his mind. The air almost smelled of regret, and the nagging feeling in the back of her head was starting to get louder. She had known that it had been almost too perfect when he had uncharacteristically declared his love for her at the Rock, and even before he said the words, she knew that was why he had turned up there tonight.

"We need to talk."

There were no crueler four words in the English language. "Alright, so talk."

Austin looked up at Lauren. She was so stunning, and it only made it that much harder. He hadn't mean to get ahead of himself when he had told her that he loved her. "I shouldn't have said what I said earlier today," he finally admitted aloud. "It's not that I don't, Lo. It's just that there is more to it. When I said that, I don't think we exactly meant the same thing. I do have feelings for you, you have to know that, but I'm not sure what they are. I just know that they're strong and I can't ignore them. So when you told me that you loved me, when you asked me, it felt easier to say yes than to figure out exactly what to call them."

It was a strange thing to hear someone take back their declaration of love and still understand what they meant. She hadn't exactly trusted him when he had said those words earlier. It all felt like too much, too fast. It had been rushed and hasty, him being caught up in wanting to be with her and the confusion of how Kaylie played into all of it. She'd had time to define her feelings, to know how she felt about him and what she wanted. He was still coming to terms with everything.

"I think I already knew that," she said finally. "I had wanted so desperately to hear you say those words that I really didn't care if they were real. I think you even believed that they were at the time, but I knew better. Everything is a mess right now, Austin. You still haven't talk to Kaylie, and I am caught in the middle of some love triangle that my former best friend doesn't even know exists. You don't love me yet, Austin. How could you? You don't even know me completely. There is still so much we have to figure out."

He couldn't believe how well she was taking all of this. He had stories about Lauren when she was still with Carter, but the woman in front of him wasn't that same person. She had grown up in the months since their breakup. As passionate and vindictive as she could still be, she had an incredibly level-headed side that sometimes saw the light of day.

"Even with all that said, Austin, I still do love you. I have had enough time to know that much for sure. I even think in time you'll come around and love me the way that I love you. I just understand now that is going to take some time," she murmured as he reached down to cover her hand. His calloused fingers brushed over her soft knuckles. "You had good intentions when you told me that you loved me. What I should have heard is that you care about me. Sometimes knowing that is enough, and for now, I think that it is."

Relief shone in his eyes as he gazed at her. She had said all the things that he couldn't. Lauren had been able to explain to him exactly how he was feeling, which seemed impossible when he himself hadn't been sure. "So we're okay?"

Lauren nodded a little and then shrugged. "Talk to Kaylie." She started to say something else until a pair of headlights started down her driveway. Lauren started to panic until she realized that they belonged to the Keelers' SUV. "You should probably get going. Payson is spending the night, and I know that she is going to need to talk."

She followed him down the steps and back toward his motorcycle while Payson was pulling her bag from the backseat of her car. "I'll meet you upstairs," she called out as she started toward the house. "Good night, Austin."

"Night, Pay," he called after her as the front door slammed shut behind her. Austin turned to Lauren and reached out to cup her cheek. She turned into his palm instinctively before taking a step back. "I'll talk to her tomorrow. After practice, I will take her to dinner and end things. I heard you loud and clear, Lauren. You both deserve better than this."

As much as she knew she shouldn't, Lauren gave into her urges and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. It wasn't a kiss, but it was still one of the most intimate things she had ever known. "Thank you," she whispered as he buried his nose briefly in her blonde hair. "You should probably get going."

"Yeah," he said as he reluctantly let her go. Lauren took a few steps back. "You girls have fun, yeah? Don't be too hard on me, even though I probably deserve it."

A bemused smile graced her pretty face, causing a little flutter in his heart. "Good night, Tucker," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Drive safe."

With a wave and one last look, Lauren watched as he disappeared off into the night before heading back for her house. After grabbing her things off the porch, she trudged upstairs and into her bedroom where Payson was setting up camp. Her friend seemed happy as she hummed to herself while rolling out her sleeping bag on the floor. "I take it that things went well tonight?"

"You could say something like that," Payson agreed before plopping down on the bed beside Lauren. "I don't have a lot of details yet, but you should know that we are going to talk to some people. Sasha wants to know what we are getting into, and he has made it clear that he doesn't plan to hide this. He wants to talk to my parents."

"Wow," Lauren nearly gasped, surprised at the approach. "What do you think about all that?"

"He said he couldn't imagine keeping me a secret. How do you think I feel?" she grinned. "I mean, it's scary and it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Anyone who knows Sasha or me knows that this goes against everything we stand for."

"That's where we disagree, Keeler," Lauren countered. "Anyone who knows you two knows exactly why this makes sense. You guys are perfect for each other. I mean, yeah, okay, the age thing has a weird factor, but other than that, I can't imagine anyone more perfect for you than Sasha."

"I know," Payson grinned. "And what about Tucker?"

"Well, he is going to talk to Kaylie tomorrow night after practice," Lauren answered. "And he kind of took back that he loved me but not exactly. It's hard to explain, but I think it was a good thing. I get where he is coming from."

"You really love him, huh?"

"It's more than that, Pay. I get him. I understand him, and it's the first time I feel like someone actually gets me," she tried to explain to her friend. "I once told Carter that I just wanted someone to pick me, and I think he genuinely tried to do that. I just wasn't ready to be picked. I needed to punish myself some more for all the things that I had done wrong. Austin makes me feel like it's possible to do something right. I'm not the second best girl that he's only with because he messed up things with the girl that he really wanted. I'm the one he wants."

"So the two of you are going to be together after he talks to Kaylie?"

Lauren shook her head. "I told him that nothing was happening until after the Olympics, and I meant it," she said confidently. "I want Austin in my life, but I know that I need to focus. And there needs to be some time after his breakup with Kaylie before we even start to try. We both know the end result, we're just not sure how we're going to get there."

Payson smiled at the sentiment, thinking how much it echoed what Sasha had said earlier. Love was like that, she supposed. It couldn't be planned exactly, even if you could see the destination up ahead. It took time to get there, and the twists and turns were inevitable. Lauren and Payson both had a tough go ahead of them, but she knew that they would get there. First they just had to get through Kaylie Cruz and her parents.


	8. Chapter 8

Right now, Lauren hated Kaylie Cruz. The tiny brunette was making moon eyes at her boyfriend, playing the part of an innocent seductress while she pretended to hang onto the Olympian's every word. A girl like Lauren could see right through the game. She had used a variation of it herself from time to time whenever the situation called for it. There were guys that liked the nice-girl act, but Lauren knew firsthand, Austin wasn't that guy.

Taking a momentary break from eavesdropping on their hushed conversation over lunch, Lauren stretched her toned legs on the blanket in front of her and tried to enjoy her last few minutes of freedom before she had to head back into the Rock for afternoon practice. She knew that in a few short hours, they would be done for the day, and Austin would be having a much different conversation with her former best friend. It took everything she had not to laugh out loud about how clueless Kaylie was acting.

"What a moron," she giggled under her breath, not at all attempting to hide her devious smile. It had been awhile before she relished someone else's forthcoming pain, and even if she had insisted that Austin talk to Kaylie, she still felt a twist of something familiar in her heart that reminded her it was kind of fun sometimes to come out on top. She probably would feel a lot different if Sasha hadn't ranked Kaylie higher than her on the bars in practice this morning. Even if it was only one apparatus, Lauren didn't want Kaylie above her on anything. She was fine with Payson, but the former National Champion was somewhat of a thorn in her side.

"What was that?"

Lauren looked up from her fruit salad to meet Payson's curious eyes. The blonde pulled a piece off her turkey sandwich and popped it into her mouth. She was understandably in a good mood after last night's conversation, and Lauren was doing her best to be a supportive friend. Even though she did secretly find it a little creepy that Sasha was interested in a teenager, Lauren knew that Payson was far from a typical girl her age. She had meant what she'd said last night when she'd told her friend that the two were clearly meant for each other. No one else had ever been able to figure out Payson like Sasha. As Lauren glanced back at Austin, his eyes briefly catching hers, she knew that things like that were really hard to find.

"Nothing, sorry, just mumbling to myself," Lauren grinned brightly as she shifted her attention back to her friend. "Just thinking about how I am going to top Kaylie on the bars this afternoon. Sasha has to be out of his mind if he thinks Kaylie is better than me at anything."

Payson rolled her eyes at her teammate. "Well, the bars are Kay's thing," she reminded Lauren. Even though Lauren was committed to being a better friend, she was still a competitive gymnast first. Payson sometimes secretly admired how open Lauren was about wanting to be the best. She never apologized for wanting something at the sake of someone else. She was determined to have what she thought she deserved, and what Lauren Tanner wanted was to be the best. The only thing Payson didn't get was why her friend Lauren didn't care about beating her all that much. She seemed fine being second behind her on the floor. Even though she was top ranked on the beam and the vault now, it was the third place behind Kaylie that seemed to piss her off most.

"They were Kay's thing, and now they are going to be mine," Lauren told her haughtily. "Look, you can't tell Kelley or Kaylie, but Sasha and I are working on upping my DOD some more. For once, he actually seems to trust me when I say that I can take it further. We're working on a Tkatchev to a Bhardwaj Salto."

Payson couldn't help but let her jaw drop a little. It was one of the hardest skills on the bars, one that few gymnasts had mastered. Payson herself was just getting the swing of the inverted giant Sasha had added a few days ago to help strengthen her routine. "Lo, that's amazing!" she whispered loudly, the excitement bursting in her eyes. While they were both competitive, Payson was also a really big fan of great gymnasts. Getting that combination would put Lauren on a whole different level. "You should look at your dismount too. I think you could do more than what you have in there."

"Thanks, Pay, I'll talk to Sasha," Lauren smiled genuinely as they started to gather up there stuff. "Can you do me a tiny favor?"

Following her friend's gaze to where Austin was still talking to Kaylie, Payson seemed to read Lauren's mind and chuckled easily. "I'll distract Kaylie, but hurry up, okay? I still don't like doing any of this behind her back," Payson ordered her before jogging up and saying something to the couple. A moment later, Kaylie cast an apologetic look in Austin's direction and followed Payson into the Rock. Austin watched after them until the door was closed before heading over to meet Lauren halfway on the lawn.

"I take it that was your doing," he grinned as he stopped just short of her. Lauren bravely closed the short distance between them and nodded. "Playing it a little dangerous, Tanner."

"Yeah, well, you looked like you could use a reprieve," Lauren flirted lightly. "And I just wanted to check in to see if you were still on for tonight. I mean, nothing has changed, right? You're still planning to talk to Kaylie."

"You're cute when you're nervous," he teased her, tugging absently on a strand of blonde hair that had escaped from her French braid. "Nothing's changed, Lo. I'm talking to Kay tonight. We're having dinner."

"Doing it in public. Smart move, Tucker," she commended him. "Call me after?"

"I could come by," he offered before taking a step closer. Lauren felt her pulse quicken as his hand ghosted down her arm and reached for hers. It took everything she had to tuck her hands behind her back. She didn't want to have to explain anything if they got caught. "Or not..."

Lauren knew that she should probably tell him just to call her when he got home, but she was being a Girl Scout enough to allow herself just a little bit of guilty pleasure. "Come by my house. My dad is supposed to be at the office late. We should have a little time before he gets home," she told him. "You know, to talk. 'Cause that's all we're doing – talking. I just want to know how everything goes."

"So I'll come by," he agreed with a wide grin. "Damn, I had no idea that Lauren Tanner ever got nervous. It really is cute, Lo."

"Shut up," she snapped, smiling despite herself. "I'm not usually, but I'm trying very hard to be a good girl right now. You're not exactly making it any easier."

Austin smiled again and shrugged. "It's my burden," he replied. "You better get in there before Sasha sends out the guards. Have a good practice. Kick some ass."

"Oh, I intend to," she told him confidently. "Some uneven bars Kaylie Cruz ass."

Payson, Kelley and Kaylie were already standing in line at the bars when Lauren got back in the gym. Payson narrowed her eyes toward her friend, frowning at how long she had taken. Lauren got the signal and smiled apologetically while she stretched quickly. Sasha was already making his way across the floor, a clipboard on his hip and a determined look in his eyes. Lauren knew that was his competitor's look, the one he got when he had a juicy bit of news that made him want to push his gymnasts harder.

"I just saw some footage of Genji Cho's new bars routine. You girls have work to do."

The next two hours were spent upping DODs, rechoreographing well-practiced routines and walking off falls. There were some risky skills thrown in there for all four of the girls, with Payson and Lauren taking on the most changes. Kelley already had a pretty difficult routine, and after a few minor adjustments, she was sent to the Annex with a trainer to perfect it. Kaylie, Payson and Lauren worked in tandem with Sasha on their changes until the coach decided to move Payson over to vault to work on her landings.

"Something is brewing," Sasha said quietly as he led Payson over to the vault to start work. Payson looked where Kaylie and Lauren were talking to one of the other trainers as she retaped her grips. "Is there something I need to know?"

Payson looked up at Sasha, noticing the mischievous twinkle in his eye. She had seen him trying not to check her out earlier, but he was now clearly using their conversation to take some much-needed time to look at her. "With Lo and Kay? Not yet. There will probably be some drama tomorrow," she warned him. "But there isn't much we can do to prevent it, so I would suggest you stay out of it until the time comes and your interference is necessary."

"Great, just what we don't need," he frowned. "And you? How are you doing after last night? It was strange working with your mother this morning knowing what I am going to be telling her soon."

"Yeah, sorry about that," she apologized. He reached out and pretended to help her tape her wrists, all the while enjoying the feeling of her calloused hand in his. "When do you want to talk to them? My dad is in from Minnesota this weekend."

"The timing couldn't be more perfect then," he said. Sasha snipped the end of the tape off and then patted her hand to signal her toward the vault's springboard. "Do you think you could tell your mom that you want to invite me to dinner? I don't know if that will be weird or not. I don't really want you to have to answer questions until we're both there and your dad is here."

Payson didn't answer as she took off full speed toward the vault. Sasha kept his eyes trained on her form, slipping automatically into coach mode. She needed to get a little more speed on her run if she wanted to get the power she wanted. That meant more conditioning, which Payson never seemed to mind. Within a matter of moments, she had landed firmly on her feet on the other side of the vault after an almost perfect Podkopayeva.

"Looks good, Payson!" he called out as she jogged over to him. "I think I want to try that in layout rather than pike though, and you need to get a little more speed on it. I want you to spend some more time on the treadmill this week. You need to get that up. And watch that last half turn. You don't want to under rotate."

With her hands on her hips, Payson nodded and soaked in his notes. It was exactly why she trusted Sasha so implicitly. He knew her well enough to know what worked and what didn't work. It was a gift he had with all the gymnasts, and that was what made him an amazing coach. That kind of instinct is also what made him such an incredible man.

"Kaylie, c'mon, switch places with Payson. I want you to run through your vault," he hollered across the gym toward the brunette pixie. Kaylie came prancing across the floor, Lauren rolling her eyes as she made her path toward Sasha. "Payson, you go spot Lauren. She has a new element she might need your help with."

"A new element?"

"Worry about your own routine, Kaylie," Sasha reprimanded her automatically. "Payson, go."

Payson walked hesitantly back toward Lauren. Sasha huddled near the vault with Kaylie, talking to her inaudibly. Payson looked back over her shoulder to see her friend nodding before she jogged toward the runway to try out an apparently improved vault. Lauren turned her attention toward the apparatus as well as Kaylie took off. They both visibly sighed with relief when she landed a basic Cuervo.

"Very good, Kaylie, again!" Sasha called as he turned to face Lauren and Payson. "Ladies, bars, now."

"_Ladies, bars, now_," Lauren mimicked beneath her breath, earning a wide-eyed look from Payson and a glare from Sasha. "You ready, Pay?"

Lauren didn't wait as she mounted the bars. After a few quick turns, she did an easy Jaeger in layout position. "Nice, Lo, keep your arms strong," Payson called out as Lauren went into straddleback position and then up in a handstand. A few movements later, she was starting her final rotations for the release. Payson stood nearby on the mat but wasn't needed when her teammate stuck her landing perfectly.

"Good job, Lauren!" Sasha called out from near the vault where he had stopped Kaylie from continuing to watch the rest of the routine. "Why don't you give the bars a rest? I'd like to see your vault. Kaylie can spot Payson."

The girls switched places and went through a few more rotations before Sasha banished Kelley and Payson to the floor to work on their routines and paired Kaylie and Lauren together on the beam. Lauren was thrilled to have an hour on her favorite event, especially since Sasha had been making her focus so much on the other elements. Kaylie went through her routine first. It was full of the pretty and safe showman moves that she was known for. It took Lauren everything she had to stifle the urge to yawn. When Kaylie finally dismounted after a halfway decent flight series, Lauren stretched out her legs excitedly and waited her turn.

"Good job, Kaylie," she said dutifully as she posed at the side of the beam. She glanced around the gym, looking for Austin and hoping that he was watching. When she spotted him near the pommel, she sent a smile beneath her lashes in his direction before turning back to the beam. "Do you want to go again or can I have a go at it?"

Kaylie fisted her hand on her hip and stared at the blonde incredulously. "Are you talking about my beam or my boyfriend?"

"Excuse me?" Lauren shot back automatically, instantly slipping into self-preservation mode. She could feel the bitch coming out. "First of all, that beam is _mine_. You're ranked fourth on the beam, Kaylie, and don't you forget it. As for whatever you are insinuating about Austin, I think you better keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you."

"Is that a threat, Lauren?" Kaylie said, taking a step in the blonde's direction. Lauren squared up instinctively. There was no way she was backing down, even if the last thing she wanted to do was argue with her friend. "Look, I know that it was easy with Carter, but Austin is different. We are in _love_. You can't just sashay your way into getting what you want, so keep your eyes off of him. He's my boyfriend. You can't have him."

"I can have anything I want," Lauren managed to get out before Payson slid between them and steered Lauren off by the shoulders. Kelley came over to talk to Kaylie, the two tiny brunettes tucked together. Payson couldn't help but wish that Lauren was a little more easy to handle like Kaylie, but the fiery blonde wasn't having any of it. "Payson, I have tried to be the nice girl. It's not working."

"Come on, Lo," Payson said in a low voice. "Don't do this, not with her and not today. You know what is going to happen and why it's going to happen. I am trying to stay indifferent, and I feel guilty even knowing what's about to go down. Don't antagonize her any more. For once, just be the bigger person."

Lauren crossed her arms over body protectively. "So this is my fault?"

"No, it's not your fault and it's not Kaylie's. It's not even Austin's fault, though I would love to blame him right now. I am starting to learn that some times these things just happen," Payson told her understandably. "I just think that you don't have to be the one to make it worse. Something tells me Kaylie only wants to hold onto Austin so you can't have him. That's part of the reason that I can deal with this. I just don't want you to give her any reason to put this on you, Lo."

"Fine, fine, I'll be nice," she finally agreed. "For you."

"That's fine, whatever it takes," Payson replied with relief.

Just as Payson was about to say something else, Kaylie started to yell behind them. Austin was standing near her, speaking in a soft voice, while Kelley pretended to be busy nearby. There was no privacy in the middle of the Rock floor, and Payson wondered exactly how long Sasha was going to allow this to go on. Their coach just stood idly by, watching the whole thing play out like the rest of them did.

"You're breaking up with me now?" Kaylie cried, her voice echoing angrily in the gym. "You have got to be kidding me. We are in the middle of practice, Austin!"

"Kaylie, please," he pleaded with her calmly. "Let's go outside and talk about this in private."

"In private, why? You want to tell me that you are cheating on me with that slut?"

"I am not cheating on you with anyone," he said. Lauren tried not to be disappointed when he didn't correct Kaylie about the slut part. "Look, you know we haven't been getting along. It's clear that this is causing problems. I just think it'd be better..."

"Better for who, Austin? Better for you? Better for the Rock? Better for Sasha? Better for the other girls?" Kaylie asked rhetorically. "Because this certainly isn't better for me."

Austin pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Stop yelling and listen to me."

Even if he was calm, there was something about the way he said it that seemed to physically sting Kaylie. In the next moment, she was sprinting out of the gym. Kelley took off after her and after sending an apologetic look at Lauren, Payson followed close behind. Lauren looked back at where her teammates had just escaped and then up at Austin and finally over at Sasha.

"Everyone else back to work!" Sasha nearly screamed. "Now!" He then lowered his voice and addressed the only two remaining elite gymnasts on the floor. "You two, my office."

Lauren stalked ahead of Austin and Sasha up to the second story office. She flopped down in the chair and didn't even bother to look at Summer or Kim. "Can you guys give us a moment?" Sasha asked the gym managers politely. The two women agreed and scurried out of the office to give the three of them some privacy. "Alright, exactly what just happened and how bad is it going to get?"

**Author's Note:** Thank you all for your continued support. I would really appreciate a few reviews to let me know how things are going and if anyone is still reading my story. I'm new to the fandom and could use a little vocal support!


	9. Chapter 9

Ever since a former hookup of his had made a very public scene a few months after the Olympics, Austin had a thing about ending a relationship in front of a crowd. It hadn't been his intention to break up with Kaylie at the Rock, but a simple request to talk after practice had gone awry when she had picked up on his underlying message. A few short tense minutes later, he found himself sitting in Sasha's office, watching Lauren fume while trying to figure a way out of a pretty bad situation. So far, other than transferring gyms, he hadn't really come up with anything.

"Alright, exactly what just happened and how bad is it going to get?"

Austin broke out of his daze to meet the eyeline of his coach. Sasha was understandably upset. Austin had made a lot of promises when he had came to the Rock, first to leave his gymnasts alone and then to protect Kaylie's fragile heart. Now that he had failed on both accounts, he knew that the older man had every justified right to hate him. However, all the anger world couldn't match the disappointment he saw in Sasha's gaze. It killed him to know that he had let his mentor down.

Just as he was about to answer, Lauren raised her chin defiantly and looked at Sasha. "What just happened is that Kaylie threw a little hissy fit that I am sure she is going to pin on me somehow. And if history tells us anything, you're about to give me a lecture that blames me as well," she announced bitterly. "So besides how bad that is going to suck, there is the whole thing going on with Austin and me. Just so we are clear, nothing has happened up to this point. Is something going to happen? Probably, but I think we could both do without your judgment on the issue. Did I miss anything, Aus?"

He couldn't help but smile a little at her brazen attitude. Lauren was unapologetic as she announced their intentions, a trait that he undeniably admired. "Just that I am sorry that our personal lives interrupted training, Sasha," he added. "I really didn't mean for it to come out that way, but Kaylie wouldn't let up when I told her I wanted to grab dinner tonight. She knew something was up, and I didn't really want to lie to her."

Sasha looked between the two of them before nodding. "Alright, well, I told you girls that I wouldn't interfere in your personal relationships unless they became a problem at the Rock. Lauren, what happened today is a problem. Do you understand that?" he asked rhetorically. Lauren rolled her eyes but nodded obediently nonetheless. "Austin, for the time being, I think it would be best if you trained in the Annex away from the girls. Just for a week or two while Kaylie cools down – give her some space, you know?"

"Fine, whatever you need," he agreed quickly. "I really am sorry that it went down like this, Sasha. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Kaylie or get anyone else in the gym involved."

"Yes, well, it's too late for that now, isn't it?" Sasha said with a polite smile. "Austin, you can go ahead and get back to the floor. Just remember to keep your private life a little more private from now on. I will not tolerate another incident without some serious ramifications. You know that this level of understanding is outside my typical coaching method, but I am trusting that the girls will be able to handle this on their own. Should it happen again, I will not be as accommodating. Do you understand me?"

Austin nodded obediently as he stood up. He looked over at Lauren, who was too busy staring daggers at the wall to meet his gaze. When he cleared his throat, she finally stopped glaring at a poster of the National Team long enough to look at him. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yeah," she replied shortly before giving him a preview of the beautiful, brilliant grin that was her signature. It was the only thing that told him that everything was eventually going to be alright and that the uncomfortable display earlier hadn't been for nothing.

"Mr. Tucker, you are dismissed," Sasha reminded him harshly, standing next to the open door as he waited for the Olympian to make his exit.

"You didn't have to be so rude," Lauren muttered once she was alone with Sasha behind closed doors. Sasha looked sideways at her and bit back an equally snappy retort. "I'm not apologizing to Kaylie if that's what this is about. I didn't do anything wrong."

Sasha sat down behind his desk and regarded her carefully. He knew Lauren's predisposition to attack back when she felt like she was about to be hurt. It was important that he approach this the right way. "Maybe not, Lauren, but you have to understand why Kaylie is hurt. The four of you girls are the heart and soul of the Olympic team. You have a real shot at an All-Around Gold. That's got to be hard for Kaylie."

Lauren looked at him incredulously. "Two years ago, Kaylie had everything. No one felt sorry for me when I wasn't the best. Now that I am at Payson's level, you expect me to feel sorry for Kaylie? That's insane, Sasha, not happening," she told him bluntly. "I worked my ass off to get here, and I will not apologize for being the best. Dammit, I deserve this. It's my time. If Kaylie wants to be at our level then she should step up. I can't worry about sending her spiraling off the edge. I need to blaze my own path. You would never have this conversation with Payson."

"I wouldn't need to," he told her quietly. "The top slot isn't the only thing that you have that belongs to Kaylie. You also have her boyfriend and her best friend. I'm not saying you shouldn't be proud of yourself for being a great gymnast, Lauren. I'm just reminding you that a little humility never hurt anyone. Don't throw this in Kaylie's face. Give her some space. You need to be united as a team, and I don't want you to hurt yourself."

She wanted to defend herself but she could hear what Sasha was saying. He wasn't asking her to be anything less than she was. He was just reminding her that she didn't have to knock Kaylie down to build herself up. The only Lauren would have done exactly that despite – or even because – of what Sasha had just said. The Lauren who wanted to take home Olympic gold in a few months knew that should be her focus instead of this drama.

"Alright, alright, I hear you," she conceded. "I won't push Kaylie unless she pushes me. But if she starts it with me, Sasha, you should prepare yourself because I will push back."

With that, Lauren left Sasha's office and headed back down to the gym. She didn't even bother to stretch again as she pranced to the front of the long line waiting for a turn on the beam. Lauren effortlessly mounted the beam with an Arabian round-off salto. It was one of the most difficult mounts in the world but she made it look as easy as breathing. After a flight series of aerials and a double twist, Lauren steadied herself on the other end and did a little spontaneous footwork. She could see Sasha watching her out of the corner of her eye as she transitioned into her round off, flic flic with a full twist. At the last minute, she rotated another half turn and went into a back hip circle over the beam. A few of the juniors nearby applauded excitedly as she pulled herself up into a handstand and then released one hand and lowered her legs into perfect splits.

Austin watched from the floor nearby. Lauren was in a zone like he had never seen before. She was connecting all these difficult moves, ones he knew were beyond her usual routine and much riskier than Sasha would let her do without some serious practice. However, her focus was so intense that not even the coach was interrupting her. Though he was sure Sasha would admonish her later, the amused look dancing in the coach's eyes showed that she had captivated his attention. However, the entire gym was stunned into silence when Lauren connected two back handsprings into a tucked full-in for the dismount. A minute later, the Rock burst into applause as Sasha rushed forward to sweep her off her feet.

"Lauren!" Sasha cried excitedly as Lauren took a few greedy gulps of air. That was almost Gutsu's dismount! Do you know what that means?"

"It means that I need to get one more handspring if I want to be among the best of all time," she told him before allowing the reality of what had just happened sink in. "And I hope that you're going to help me rock it because I'm going to need some coaching from you and Pay."

While Lauren was landing crazy dismounts back at the Rock, Payson was sitting silently in the passenger seat of Kaylie's car while her friend rambled on and on about how selfish Lauren and Austin were. Payson had tried to be understanding for the first few minutes, offered her opinion somewhere around the seven-minute mark, tried to point out that Kaylie was being a little harsh at some point around minute fifteen and had given up even listening twenty minutes in. It was only when Kaylie called Lauren a bitch that Payson had to speak up.

"Alright, enough," Payson said evenly. "I have listened to you go on and on about everything that has happened and let you play victim long enough, Kaylie. You're hurt, I get it. I even understand that part. What I don't get is how you can possibly act as though you had nothing to do with this. We both know that you don't even want to be with Austin anymore. You don't love him, Kay. You just don't want Lauren to have him."

"He was my boyfriend, Payson," Kaylie reminded her hotly. "I can't believe you're taking her side here. It's just like Carter all over again. Lauren got jealous and decided that she wanted what I had. She went after Austin."

"And Austin is just innocent in all this? Give me a break, Kay. Guys don't go there unless that's what they want," Payson reminded her. "And even if everything you say is true, it doesn't change the fact that you don't love him. It's not fair to Austin and it's not fair to you to hold onto something just because you don't want Lauren to be with him. If Lauren was really still that girl, she would have just hooked up with Austin like she did Carter. She cares about you, Kay, even if you don't believe it."

"Lauren takes everything that's mine."

"Austin doesn't belong to you, Kaylie."

"It's not just Austin. She took my spot at the gym. She took you, Payson. You were my best friend too! What happened to that? You are defending her. It's clear you're on her side."

Payson looked over at her friend and rested her hand on Kaylie's shoulder. "I'm still your best friend, Kaylie, but I'm also Lauren's friend. I can be that to both of you without having to choose," she vowed. "I abandoned Lauren last time, though, and I won't do it again. She has been a really good friend to me when I've needed it. You have been busy training with Kelley, and I don't begrudge you that at all. We're all doing what we need to do to be the best. Lauren has worked to get her slot. That shouldn't make you angry at her. It should make you want to work that much harder."

"Whatever, Payson, take her side," Kaylie repeated before turning the car around and heading back to the gym.

When they pulled back in the parking lot fifteen minutes later, the tension between the two of them was so thick that Payson didn't even bother to pretend to comfort her friend. She just leapt out of the car and rushed up the stairs to Sasha's office, slamming the door behind her. Payson stood at the glass window and watched the gymnasts working out below before allowing her gaze to fall on Sasha. He must have sensed it because he turned instinctively to seek her out from above. She waved a little to gesture him up, and within a couple minutes, he was shutting the door and pulling the blinds to give them some much-needed privacy.

"Hey, it's okay," he murmured when Payson threw herself in his arms. She clung to him needily as he whispered sweetly into her hair, a mixture of English and Romanian phrases that she barely recognized. Payson didn't even try to hide the tears that were falling from her eyes. She only allowed Sasha to brush them away before pressing a tender kiss to the crown of her blonde hair. "Don't cry, mea dulce fata. You're far too beautiful to be so sad."

Payson managed a pretty smile through the tears as she leaned up on her tiptoes to hug him tightly. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him but knew that it was risky with the athletes still training downstairs. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess," she apologized. "It's just been a hard day."

"I know, don't apologize," he pleaded with her as he led her over to the couch. She let him hold her hands in his lap as he regarded her carefully, studying her face for a true indication of how she was doing. "I spoke with Austin and Lauren. I trust that this will be the end of their public drama at the Rock. They both seemed to understand why today was not appropriate."

"I wish I could say the same for Kaylie," she retorted. "I know that Kaylie is technically the scorned woman or whatever, but I feel like she is being a little selfish. I'd never tell her or Lauren this, but Kay is kind of playing the victim. It's like she expects everything to be given back to her. We can't all go back to the way it was before she got sick. It sucks, but it's reality. Lauren has put in the work and Kaylie hasn't."

"She landed a double back handspring tucked full on the dismount. Stuck it perfectly."

"Attempting a Gutsu? Wow," Payson said, clearly in awe. It was an impressive dismount. "Do you think she can get that third one."

Sasha nodded. "She has the power and the presence it takes. I'm going to work with her to get it up there, but Pay, unless something drastic changes, I think Lauren is almost a sure thing for gold on the beam. There is no one competing near her level right now on it. She didn't even warm up when she did the routine. I mean, she mounted with an Arabian round-off salto without even thinking about it. It's like watching you work out a floor routine in your head. You two are the girls to beat in London. That has to be hard for Kaylie. A year ago, everyone was so sure it would be her up there."

"We worked hard to get there. No one puts in longer hours than I do, you know that. But lately, Lauren has been here almost as much as me. She has worked out beside me, not just at the routines either. She has been in conditioning and cardio. She went with me to a few dance classes to work on her footwork. Lauren is as serious as I've ever seen her. That's created a bond between us that seems to bother Kaylie, but I don't think it's fair that she expects me to apologize for it."

"I wish you weren't in the middle, singura mea stea."

"Yeah, well, it's too late for that," Payson smiled. "What's that one mean again?"

"My only star," he translated, squeezing her fingers.

"Pretty," she replied before turning her body so that her head could rest on his chest. "Can we stop talking about them? Let's talk about us. I want to think about happy things."

"And I'm one of those?"

"You're the biggest one," she confirmed as she gazed up at him over her shoulder. Sasha felt his breath catch in his throat. Her blue eyes were so dark and clear benath her hooded lashes, making what she wanted very clear. Before he could stop himself, Sasha had closed the distance between them and captured her lips in a brief but undeniably perfect kiss. It was only when she groaned happily at the back of her throat that he pulled away and realized what he had allowed to happen at the gym. "No, don't go.."

"Payson, this can't happen until we talk to your parents. We've talked about it."

"Yes, I get all your logical arguements, Sash," she murmured softly. "I also get that it doesn't stop me from wanting to do this."

Payson leaned forward impulsively and pressed her lips hungrily to Sasha's. He growled possessively as he hiked her closer body closer to his. Winding her arms around his neck, she pressed her entire length to his and allowed herself to get lost in the only for a moment, there was only him and her and this kiss. There would be time for the real world and all of its harsh logic later.


	10. Chapter 10

And so, the girls of The Rock watched as the world spun madly on without actually spinning off its axis. A lot changed quickly and yet, so many things still stayed the same. The Olympic trials came and went, placing Payson and Lauren squarely in the first and second slots on the American team. While a girl from Houston took the coveted third spot, both Kelley and Kaylie came in fourth and fifth. Sasha was named as one of the coaches of the team along with a former national champion who coached at a rising gym in New Hampshire. The media had already all but placed the gold medals around the team's necks.

With their professional lives placing them in the media and their routines stronger than ever, there wasn't a lot of time to focus on their personal ones. However, between practices and training, between interviews and photo shoots, between team meetings and one-on-one private sessions, between the world of professional gymnastics and being an eighteen-year-old girl, they all found time to come to terms with what had gone down the past several months.

For Payson, that meant finally coming clean with both of her parents about everything that was going on with Sasha. Mark had yelled for a solid hour when Payson had calmly explained everything to her parents over dinner, Sasha silently holding her hand beneath the dining room table. Her mother had been much quieter, and Payson suspected then and there that perhaps Kim had known all along. Once her father had calmed down enough to actually have a civil conversation, Payson outlined her plans to keep the relationship quiet and on the back burner until after the Olympics. She also indicated that she planned to abide by all the rules set forth by her parents about curfews and dating in general. As mature as she appeared, both Kim and Mark knew better. Their daughter might be a mature professional athlete but she was still an emotional and hormonal teenager.

"You will not spend time with Sasha alone at his trailer," Mark had told her as he started to count off the rules on his left hand. "And you will be home at nine during the week, no later – not even for so-called training at the Rock. Sasha is free to come here and see you if he wants to spend time with you somewhere other than in public. If your grades slip or if we think even for a minute that this is getting in the way of your training, it ends. Do you understand me?"

Payson nodded dutifully at her father, not bothering to hide the small smile on her face. Kim turned to Sasha. "How about you, Belov? You got it?"

"Kim, Mark, I assure you that I will respect your rules as much as I respect your daughter," Sasha promised them. "Please know that this is not something that was planned by either of us. In fact, we both tried quite hard to ignore these feelings."

Kim waved her hand dismissively. "I saw it a long time ago, Sasha," she told him. "I knew it was only a matter of time that you realized you look at my daughter exactly like she looks at you. I am just thankful that it took you this long."

With that one conversation, Payson and Sasha were officially given a cautious blessing from the Keelers to move forward with their relationship. Payson worked diligently to make sure that her training didn't suffer an ounce from the inevitable distractions falling in love with her coach provided and suppressed every urge she had from kissing him after she managed to finally land the monstrous tumbling pass Sasha had designed especially for her Olympic floor routine. It was the same one that gave her name to a new maneuver and would help her win the gold medal on the apparatus in London. However, she wasn't able to stop herself from kissing him there on the blue mat as a million cameras flashed around her.

Meanwhile, Kaylie had slowly started to come back to full power in the last days leading up to London. With hard work and support from her entire team, she was finally ready to take on the bars with the full power that she'd had for so long. Everyone was surprised when it was Lauren who helped her perfect her routine, spending countless hours in the Annex with her until she was able to land each move without faltering. Lauren's bristly approach to competition was exactly what Kaylie needed to push her back to the next level.

"Watch your hip, Kaylie!" Lauren hollered as her petite teammate soared backward toward the high bar. Her ponytail flew around her face as she pulled herself up into a handstand and then flipped around twice before switching back to the low bar. "Nice, Kay. Keep those arms strong."

It was hours of this, of scrutinizing every little thing, that ended in the two of them really becoming friends again. When Sasha found them asleep on the mat one afternoon, a notebook of handwritten notes and diagrams between them, he knew that his team was finally starting to come back together. Payson told him a few days later that Kaylie had forgiven Lauren for everything and Lauren had promised to let everything else go. His girlfriend seemed relieved to have two of her best friends back on speaking terms again, and as long as it was good for the team, that was all he really needed to know.

The endless hours of work paid off when Kaylie got a coveted silver medal for her bars routine. Even with Sasha nearby and her parents waiting just off the corner of the mat, it was Lauren's arms that Kaylie flew into as soon as her scores were announced. Burying her face in Lauren's shoulder, she couldn't stop the tears from coming. "You did it, Kay!" Lauren whispered happily in her friend's ear, hugging her tightly. "I am so proud of you." Kaylie grinned at her friend before rushing over to hug her parents and her new boyfriend and an old friend of Lauren's, Razor.

Kelley received the same kind of support from Payson, Kaylie and even Lauren when she won a silver of her own on the vault. Although her past injuries had haunted her, her relationship with Carter had blossomed and driven her to want to be stronger both physically and emotionally. He had believed in her when everyone else had hated her, something Lauren had once confided in her that she could understand. It was part of what made him special, Lauren reasoned with Kelley, and that was what she needed to focus on instead of the negative voices of her mother and all the other gymnastic naysayers.

Kelley still couldn't believe that she was friends with Lauren Tanner. Even more than that, she couldn't believe that it was her current boyfriend and Lauren's ex that brought them together. She was happy, however, that Carter and Lauren had slowly found themselves on good terms again. The whole team, the men and women gymnastics squads, spent a lot of time together leading up to the Games and then in London. After a cup of coffee at the trials in San Jose, Lauren and Carter had finally made up. Kelley had hugged them both afterward before Lauren started teasing her about being a sap.

"Baby, you got it!" Carter screamed as Kelley came jogging off the mat to rejoin her team. She turned back to look up at the scoreboard and saw her name falling into the second slot. Even though it knocked Payson down to third place, she couldn't help but celebrate. "I am so proud of you." Kelley beamed up at Carter then and allowed him to pull her into a hug. "Seriously, Kel, you have no idea. I love you so much."

"Love you, too," she replied quickly before pulling away and smiling up at him as the rest of her teammates came over. Lauren was the first to reach her, grabbing Kelley's hand as they both jumped up and down. Payson and Kaylie soon joined them, ending in a group hug. It had taken a long time for them to get there, but Kelley finally felt like she belonged on the team. She actually had friends.

However, even with all the other medals that the girls of the rock managed to pull down, it was surprisingly Lauren Tanner that came out on top. While Payson would go on to win a silver in the beam and a bronze on both the vault and bars in addition to her gold on the floor, it was only enough to earn her second place in the All-Around. She just couldn't beat Lauren's three gold medals on bars, vault and beam and single silver on floor. The blonde powerhouse had come to symbolize the 2012 Olympics for the American Women's Gymnastics Team and forever cemented her place in sports history when the gold All-Around was slipped around her neck.

"I am so glad we got you up to that triple," Sasha laughed as she came back to join her team, handing off the bouquet of roses to one of the trainers so that she could fully hug her coach. "Lauren, you have come farther than any athlete I have ever worked with. I am very proud of you."

Lauren fingered her medal casually before looking up at Sasha. "That means more to me than any piece of hardware ever could," she told him honestly. "It has been an honor training with you, Sasha. Thank you for believing in me even when I didn't think you did."

Payson watched the exchange with a proud smile before temporarily breaking up the conversation. With her own silver medal dangling from her neck, she couldn't have been prouder of her best friend. Even if she had always dreamed of gold, she knew that the reality was so much better. This was the path her journey was meant to take, and she was surprisingly okay with it. Lauren had been the better gymnast this time around, and Payson didn't regret anything she had done herself even a little bit. She had her Olympic gold for a floor routine that meant the world to her because it was what had started all of this in the first place. That would forever be her love letter to the gymnastics world.

"Congrats, Lo!" Payson said softly in her best friend's ear as the two of them hugged tightly. "You were awesome. You deserve this."

"We _both_ deserve this," Lauren emphasized as she tapped her friend's silver medal. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, Pay. Our entire team is here because of you."

"Speaking of team," Payson announced as Kelley and Kaylie joined them. The four girls pulled into a group hug, bowing their heads tightly together. A surprise girl from the German team had taken the bronze, keeping it just out of Kelley's reach, but they all had their own individual medals to show for their performances in London. "You guys, this is it."

"Not even close," Kaylie announced. "It's just beginning, Pay."

"What is?" Kelley asked, her eyebrow raised. The closing ceremony was in two days.

"Life, KP," Payson smiled as she looked over Kaylie's shoulder at Sasha. "The rest of our lives outside gymnastics finally lies ahead. The world is wide open. We get to be normal."

"Us normal?" Kaylie laughed as her eyes found Razor's in the crowd. She was glad he was just a little abnormal because it made her own idiosyncrasies seem perfect. "I think I'll take whatever comes next just as it is without trying to make it this so-called normal."

"Yeah, I don't think we were made for normal," Kelley agreed before glancing to where Carter was waiting for the men's All-Around announcements on the mat with the other men. "Besides, I still have to wait a few more minutes to see if my other half has four more years of training or something else entirely lying ahead."

Lauren followed Kelley's eyeline to the mat to spot her own boyfriend. Austin had never looked more handsome than he did then, his dark hair shining beneath the spotlight. He had been amazing, pulling off a perfect run of four gold medals in the All-Around competition. It was only a matter of minutes before he would be named as the best male gymnast in the world for the second time in his career.

In fact, five minutes later, Austin was wiping away tears as the last notes of the National Anthem faded away and he stepped off the winner's block to finally catch up with his girlfriend. Carter was a few steps ahead of him, clutching his bronze medal as he pulled Kelley into a deep kiss. Everything else was a blur as Lauren met him halfway across the mat, launching herself into his waiting arms. "Baby, we did it," he whispered as he pressed his forehead to hers. He didn't kiss her yet, content just to look down in her eyes as their gold medals clinked together. "We did it." Someone somewhere captured the moment with a beautiful photograph that would later find its way to his nightstand.

Lauren and Austin had fought longer and harder than anyone to get there. After that day in Sasha's office, they had worked separately for a full week before Lauren had sought him out in the parking lot after practice. "This, none of it, works without you anymore," she had told him tearfully as she leaned against his motorcycle. "I don't care if everyone else thinks it's good for me because you're good for me, Austin. You make me better. I miss you so much."

"Oh, Lo," he said as he hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head carefully. "You are so much better than you could ever know, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to do anything without me if you don't want. You say the word and I'm right there."

"The word," she whispered. "I love you, Austin."

It took him another month to say those three words back to her in the way that she deserved and he truly meant. Lauren was the girl who made Austin want to be different and made him better, a fact that he declared proudly in all the interviews leading up to London. Getting his second gold medal meant nothing compared to having Lauren love him. In his mind, he had already won.

And now, standing in the middle of thousands of people, Austin only saw Lauren. He only saw the love and pride shining in her eyes as she slipped off her own gold medal and placed it around his neck. Austin followed suit, sliding his own gold medal over her head. It meant more than exchanging any kind of rings ever could. It cemented the future that they both knew they would have together, even if it wasn't going to come for a few more years. It said "I love you" and "You love me" and everything else that he had ever wanted to say to her before.

"Alright, alright, we need to get lined up for the team announcements," Sasha called out as he broke up the intimate moment between them. "Come on, Tucker, get back with your team."

Lauren kissed him one last time before taking her place between Kaylie and their team's captain, Payson. The girls all grabbed each other's hand and stepped to the edge of the mat as the men's teams took the floor. Austin winked at her before smiling up toward the flashing cameras parked right in front of him and Carter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in third place, the team from South Korea," the announcer called over the loud speaker as the team of six gymnasts stepped forward to have their bronze medals placed around their necks.

After a few minutes, the announcer came back on to announce that the men's team from the United States had won the silver medal. Considering that the team had been called weak in the weeks leading up to competition, winning second place was no easy feat. As the team captain, Austin stepped forward first to get his silver medal. Lauren and Kelley were probably clapping loud than anyone in the entire arena as Carter was the next to get his.

One the Romanian name had rightfully been given their gold medals, the women's teams took the floor. The girls were still holding hands as they stepped into the middle of the mat. The crowd was incredibly loud, waving flags and shouting the names of their homelands. However, it was the constant call of "USA! USA! USA" that stood out above the rest. Lauren took a moment to let it all soak in before seeking out her own father in the crowd. She smiled and mouthed a quick "I love you" to him. Steve placed his hand over his heart and nodded. This moment was a culmination of both their dreams coming true. Lauren would have never made it here without him.

"Winning the bronze is Team Germany."

Payson and Kaylie squeezed Lauren's hands tightly on either side of them. Under the new rules, the team competition scores had been kept secret, so nothing was for certain yet. They dropped hands only for a moment to politely clap before grabbing onto one another again. It seemed like the entire team was holding their breath, waiting for the next sentence to let them know if everything they had worked on their entire lives had finally paid off.

"With the silver bronze, Team China."

"Holy shit!"

Everyone was surprised when the exclamation came from Payson. She couldn't help but cover her mouth and hide her wide grin. They had actually won. It was all but confirmed a few moments later when the announcer finally said, "The gold medal goes to Team USA!" The six gymnasts immediately circled around and hugged tightly, bowing their heads together again as they had after Payson and Lauren had won their individual medals. Their tight group was only pulled apart with the Olympic Committee made its way over to give them their golds.

Lauren was the first to cry as the Star Spangled Banner started to blare inside the arena. She looked at Payson and then at Kaylie before glancing down the line at Kelley. She moved closer and took Payson's hand again. Kaylie locked her fingers around Kelley's before the line of six gymnasts former again. This was their moment, one that no one else could ever understand or take away from them.

Once they had posed for all the required pictures and received their congratulations from the other teams, judges and officials, the Rock girls headed straight for their coach to celebrate. Sasha hugged each of them, holding onto Lauren and Payson for a beat longer than the others. "Fetele mele," he said, looking down at them. "You are the best that I have ever worked with, and no other team will ever mean as much to me as you. I am so proud of you – of all of you."

"He's not the only one who is proud!" a familiar voice called out as a lanky brunette came over to join them. Emily had longer hair and a few more curves than the old days, but with a one-year-old Katherine Sasha Kmetko-Young on her hip, she was still the same girl they had always known. The group circled around her to hug their friend. No one said that she should have been there because no one thought that anymore. Kelley was meant to be on that team and Emily was meant to have her daughter. As Damon finally made his way through the crowd to join his family, no one could have argued with that fact.

Eventually, the rest of the families made their way down. Lauren watched as Mark Keeler shook Sasha's hand, Payson, Becca and Kim exchanging a tight hug nearby. Once Kim had hugged Sasha and Mark had hugged his daughter, Payson found her way into Sasha's arms. "I guess the cat's out of the bag, huh?" she grinned as she looked up into his eyes.

"It would appear so, frumoasa mea campion," he smiled before kissing the tip of her nose. "You look beautiful in gold."

"Thank you," she replied. "For everything."

"Mhm," he murmured before slanting his mouth over hers. "I love you, Payson Keeler."

"And I love you, Sasha Belov," she retorted.

Lauren eventually moved her eyes to where Alex Cruz had his daughter wrapped in a tight embrace, Ronnie and Leo both hot on his heels. Razor waited patiently while Kaylie greeted her family before placing a small kiss on his girlfriend's lips. Kelley was nearby with her own mother, not allowing her to take this moment away from her, as Carter kept his arm tightly around her and his own family congratulated her. She smiled at that more than anything, seeing Carter's dad there. However, she soon lost sight of the Andersons when her own father made his way to her.

"Lauren, sweetheart, I am so proud of you!" Steve told her as he hugged her tightly. She could see the tiny tears sparkling in his eyes, causing a few of her own to finally trail down her cheek. "You were – are – amazing."

"I owe you this, Daddy," she said as she handed him her team gold medal. "You gave up everything so that I could make it here, and even when I didn't appreciate it, I always knew that. Thank you so much for believing in me and loving me when I didn't really deserve it. I never once doubted that I could make it here somehow as long as I had you to believe in me."

"Oh, Lauren," he murmured as he hugged her. "Your mother would be so proud."

Lauren took a minute to glance heavenward and thank God for her father and even her mother. It wasn't a conventional life but it was hers, and she wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. "I guess I should be congratulating both of you," Steve said suddenly as Austin came over. He extended his hand and shook Austin's. "You were great this week, Austin."

"Thank you, sir," he said politely before smiling at his girlfriend. "Hey, Champ."

"Champ, hmm, I like the sound of it," she bemused. "So we just won Olympic gold, now what?"

"Disney World?" Austin joked.

"I'm thinking more like sleeping for two days and a whole lot of junk food!" she grinned. "I already know all the things I want Maggie to make me."

"How about some of my famous chocolate chip cookies?" Summer asked as she joined them.

Lauren smiled and hugged her tightly. "That'd be perfect."

"Girls, we need you over here for some more photos," Sasha called out.

"That's me," Lauren said before hugging Summer and then her father one more time. "I'll see you back at the hotel, right?"

"Of course, we have a team dinner to celebrate," Steve grinned before kissing his daughter's forehead one last time. "I am so proud of you, Lauren. Congratulations again, Austin."

Once they were finally alone, Lauren crept to her tiptoes to fully kiss Austin again. "Yup, still the same," she said as she pulled away. "I thought maybe kissing as a champion would be different, but its' not."

"Good, I don't want anything to change."

"Anything?"

"I wouldn't change a single thing, Lauren Tanner," Austin promised. "I love you, Lo."

"I love you, too, Aus," she grinned.

"C'mon, Lo, quit making googly eyes at Tucker and get your butt over here!" Payson hollered out.

Lauren reluctantly let go of Austin and smiled widely as she ran over to meet up with Payson, Kaylie and Kelley. This is where it all began. Before there were boys and drama, before expectations and rankings, before gold medals and injuries, there were girls and gymnastics. As they smiled at the camera and then each other, everything that had happened before now no longer mattered. They were no longer stuck between two worlds. They had been catapulted into an entirely new one. Sure, they were Olympic gold medalists and American gymnasts and teammates, but they were still friends first. Long after the next team had come and gone and the world had forgotten about the Rock girls, they would still know and love each other without condition. Kelley and Kaylie and Payson and Lauren couldn't think of a better way for their Olympic stories to end.

**FIN.**

_**Author's Note:**_ I know that this is a rather abrupt end to the story, but I hope I still did it justice. I have lost the bug to write this story but still wanted to make sure it got wrapped up. Thank you all so much for your reviews and kind words of encouragement. It is deeply appreciated.


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